The Italians have a saying: “When this pope dies, we shall make another.” This should not be understood as flippancy. It is a profound recognition that the church relies on grace to endure and spread the Gospel message, not on the gifts of any particular pope, even a very gifted pope like the one who was laid to rest Saturday.
Now, the cardinals must make that saying their own. They must “make another” pope.
We have all seen the lists of favorites, the papabili. Some are better than others and they all capture the fact that the 135 cardinal electors are choosing a person, not a platform.
The late Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, who participated in both the 2005 and 2013 conclaves, once explained the dynamic to me, how he looked at the different candidates and imagined them sitting in the center chair where the pope sits.
George noted that in 2005, this was relatively easy because Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger led the general congregations at which the cardinals discussed the needs of the church. He also preached and presided at the funeral of Pope John Paul II and at Mass for the Election of the Roman Pontiff immediately before the conclave started. In short, he was already in the presider’s chair and filling the role, so it was easy to picture him doing that in a differently colored cassock.
The lists of favorites, however, do not reflect — and cannot reflect — which cardinal will give a speech in the general congregations that puts his finger on the pulse of the church and resonates with his brother cardinals in a way the other speeches do not. Or if there will be several such speeches. In a conclave like this one, in which there is no obvious frontrunner, those speeches will be critical.
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With thanks to National Catholic Reporter and Michael Sean Winters, where this article originally appeared.
