John Daniel Davidson of the Federalist assesses the importance of the upcoming process for replacing the late Pope Francis.
The papal conclave to elect a successor to Pope Francis will soon be underway in Rome. Cardinals from all over the world, 135 of whom are eligible to cast a vote, are now traveling to the Vatican. There they will meet behind the sealed doors of the Sistine Chapel, cut off from the outside world for as many sessions as it takes to elect a new pope.
Corporate and Catholic media alike are rife with predictions about who that might be. Lists of “papable” cardinals are popping up all over social media, but of course no one really knows what will happen in the coming days and weeks. While it’s true that Pope Francis himself has appointed 80 percent of the cardinal electors, they’re not all liberals cut from the same ideological cloth as Francis. What they’ll do is anyone’s guess.
What’s certain, however, is that the conclave will be a contest between two competing visions of Catholicism. On one side are the aging liberal boomers, who came up in the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council and whose vision for the church is decidedly modern. They think everything that came before Vatican II is bad and that ripping out the altar rails, selling off the icons, and banning Gregorian chant and polyphony in favor of tambourines and guitars was a great improvement. They believe in erasing the differences between the laity and clergy, ignoring or destroying Sacred Tradition, and deemphasizing or outright denying the reality of sin. Francis was one of them, and there are many others in the College of Cardinals. They have done their work with zeal, and much has been lost. …
… On the other side is a cohort of more traditional, theologically orthodox and culturally conservative prelates who reject the liberalism of “the spirit of Vatican II.” They understand that Catholicism is attracting new, increasingly young converts worldwide precisely because it stands against the chaos and confusion of modernity.
