Following the death of Pope Francis, cardinals from across the Catholic world will gather early next month to elect the next leader of the church. Some of the questions surrounding the next conclave concern whether the church will move away from Pope Francis’ more progressive attitudes by electing a traditionalist like Fridolin Besungu from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Francis himself appeared to present a welcoming and loving embrace to marginalized groups such as the LGBTQ community and immigrants – in my eyes much more reminiscent of what one would expect from Jesus himself given his relationships with those who he considered sinners. Like Jesus, Francis chose to reach out to those he deemed in need of salvation rather than simply condemning them.
Nevertheless, whether the next pope is a traditionalist or a reformer, they will need to balance the demands of an imperfect world with the divine authority that their voice is supposed to carry – to Catholics, the word of popes often defaults to being roughly in line with what God himself would ordain.
It is often thought that Popes have to explicitly invoke infallibility in order for their proclamations to be entirely protected from error. To date, there have only been two such invocations – one for the Immaculate Conception and another for the Assumption of Mary. The church has had to make clarifications that some declarations by a pope were not made under the authority of infallibility as in the case of Paul VI’s condemnation of artificial insemination.
Even so, the Pope’s word always carries the force of the doctrine of papal supremacy and his instructions are meant to be guarded from containing heretical content. When your word contains such religious authority, it becomes difficult to follow through with your duty to administer such a massive institution in a way that it flourishes given real world conditions. Social conditions such as the need for revenue often demand a sacrifice of orthodox teachings.
Pope Francis’ attempt to reach out to the LGBTQ community could be seen as not only a reflection of the teachings of Jesus, but also as an attempt to expand the reach of the Catholic church when it needed it the most. For years, the Catholic church has been hemorrhaging membership in the Western world and therefore losing a sizable share of its donations. According to estimates, the church had a budget deficit of almost $50 million in 2021.
But this outreach comes at the cost of imbuing what was once thought of as heretical doctrine with the weight of the papacy’s connection with God. The conflict between the worldly need for funds and other-wordly church doctrine must have certainly weighed on the mind of Pope Francis when he decided to allow blessings for same-sex couples.
Popes often have to attempt to satisfy the varying expectations of differing Catholic groups. Pope Francis, as has been common throughout the papacy’s history, was challenged by both progressive and conservative Catholics and neither of these groups necessarily share in the pope’s unique religious position that allows them to decree with divine support.
What I mean here is that, by the church’s own light, the varying groups that apply pressure to the pope are disposed to suffer from normal and fallible epistemic conditions that will often cause them to endorse unjustified claims, religious or otherwise. Yet, these groups have the ability to apply pressure on the pope.
Much like the pressures applied on political leadership by citizens of a nation, it is quite often without due consideration to what is practical to the survival of the institution. The idea of a pope as a pure spiritual leader whose work helps convey the true message of God is therefore somewhat of a fantasy.
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Rafael Perez is a columnist for the Southern California News Group.
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