Pope Francis - Rest in Peace
Eternal rest grant unto Pope Francis, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon him.
May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed,
through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
Amen.
War, Moral Principles, and Contemporary Conflicts
Introduction War presents profound moral challenges, forcing a confrontation with the limits of human reason and conscience. The Catholic Church offers a moral framework rooted in the intrinsic dignity of every human person and the immutable moral law, even in the chaos of conflict. This essay applies these enduring principles to two contentious military episodes of the modern era: the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, and Israel’s military campaign in Gaza following Hamas’s attack in October 2023. While the bombings on Japan represent a clear case of intrinsic evil under Catholic doctrine, the Gaza conflict illustrates the complexities of just war reasoning. By engaging these cases, the Church’s moral vision offers guidance on the ethical boundaries of warfare and the responsibilities of combatants to justice and human dignity. Catholic Teaching on Moral Acts and War Catholic moral theology teaches that the morality of any human act depends on three essential co...
The link below is to a piece I wrote six months ago on my own substack. It's a kind of psychological assessment of what I think -- thought -- of Pope Francis. The title is deliberately provocative, but if you read it through, you may find points of agreement with me. In any event, it pretty much remains my assessment.
ReplyDeletehttps://open.substack.com/pub/bell707/p/is-pope-francis-a-fascist?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=1uom9k
Hm, impressive analysis, Mr Bell - that he might have been influenced by Peronism had never really occurred to me before.
DeleteGadjo
Oh, it's well known that he was an old Peronist. I was just opining that Peronism is a cousin of fascism, albeit a distant one.
DeleteHmm, Peronism seems to have been one complicated monkey, perhaps a "Third Position" movement, and I'm guessing that the alternatives might not have appeared too promising to Argentinians like Francis, but adhering to any ideology other than that of The Church could be a mistake for any future pope.
DeleteI studied 'Peronism' at university and then and now have yet to come across a political analysist able to define it. As for Pope Francis, his emphasis on the poor, the marginalised, labour, and migrants, whilst it has cross-overs with 'Peronism.' it is very much in tune with Catholic social teaching. His personal leadership style, however, may owe something to Peron.
DeleteIndeed, Peronism is almost impossible to define. In that regard, it's very like fascism.
DeleteAstute observations from a lapsed, now atheist Catholic:
ReplyDelete"This is the tragedy of Francis: having, in part, been an instrument of the mercenary rulers of Argentina, he later let himself be an instrument for the equally mercenary if not quite as tyrannical influencers of the cultural establishment. In the eyes of the Conclave that elected him, Francis’s pontificate would be a ‘corrective’ to that of Benedict XVI. Where Benedict had been a traditionalist, Francis would be a reformer. Where Benedict was fiercely intellectual, Francis would be humble. Where Benedict waged ceaseless war on the ‘dictatorship of relativism’, on that cursed ideological cult that recognises ‘nothing as definitive’, Francis famously said in response to a query about gay men serving as priests: ‘Who am I to judge?’ .....
Benedict discovered that the price of moral conviction is unpopularity. Francis discovered that the price of moral compromise is disarray. This is the stark choice we all face in these tumultuous times, believers and non-believers alike."
https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/04/21/the-tragedy-of-pope-francis/
The lists of papabili are beginning to appear. Reuters is listing eight cardinals it has picked as leading candidates, while CNN is hedging its bets with a list of no fewer than sixteen.
ReplyDeleteThere are only four, however, who appear on both lists. Card. Joseph Tobin, the archbishop of Newark, is one of the privileged few, alomg with the current Secretary of State, Card. Pietro Parolin; Card. Péter Erdö, archbishop of Budapest; and Card. Mario Grech, the secretary general of the Synod of Bishops.
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/04/22/world/pope-francis-successor-frontrunners-intl-dg/index.html?iid=cnn_buildContentRecirc_end_recirc
https://www.reuters.com/world/who-might-succeed-pope-francis-some-possible-candidates-2025-04-21/
I can’t post a link, but I just noticed that the NYTimes has now posted its own list of just seven names. Right up at the top, Card. Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem. Bearing in mind the general slant of the NYT’s reporting on Catholic affairs, I'm not sure whether to see this as a good omen or a bad omen.
DeleteThere seems to be a rather wide range of "frontrunners". I didn't know this:
Delete"(Francis) threw out the old, unwritten rulebook that bishops of certain dioceses (several of them in Italy) would automatically be made cardinals and instead gave red hats to bishops in parts of the world that had never had them before, such as Tonga, Haiti and Papua New Guinea. Several of them are “outsiders” to the Roman system, so it makes it harder to predict how they will vote."
Francis tried very hard to stack the college to make a clone of him when he died, but it never works out the way people like him think. Some cardinals will be more conservative than he had realised, keeping their true nature hidden until the moment was right. He did this himself. Others who WERE actually quite liberal will be appalled at the havoc he has wreaked and will lean back towards the centre or even the right. And although He doesn't choose the pope -- that's an ultra montane fantasy that only dates from the First Vatican Council -- I have a feeling the Holy Ghost may want to get involved in this one Himself. If He does, that scuppers all forecasts.
DeleteI'm in no position to make suggestions or predictions. However, I have been trying to learn Hungarian - the language of a sizable minority where I live - but it's so difficult that they tell me I'll have to wait for divine intervention to get it.
DeleteTransylvania?
DeleteInteresting region.
Pope Francis leaves a complicated legacy. I admired his commitment to the poor and marginalised, which I think was important for a Church that had become rather too preoccupied with protecting its own reputation and institution. But he was also an example of the dangers of the type of 'compassion' that infests modern thinking: that 'niceness' and 'kindness' are more important than the truth.
ReplyDeleteIn contrast to Benedict's precise theology, Francis's more ambiguous utterances caused a lot of unrest - either intentionally or through their being hijacked by bad actors. A mature spirituality rests easy with paradoxes and questions that can't be answered, but a leader needs to be more discerning: many people, particularly those growing in faith, need black and white answers, and they're even more important in matters of doctrine.
For what it's worth, I think that Francis's successor needs to be someone who is clearer and more decisive about the faith, who won't allow himself to be pushed and pulled by the agenda of others, and is a bit more savvy about how his words will be spun by journalists: particularly if a revival is imminent.
At this moment the Paddy Power online betting site is offering the following odds on the candidates it sees as the top six papabili:
ReplyDeleteParolin, 2-1
Tagle, 3-1
Turkson. 6-1
Zuppi, 7-1
Sarah and Pizzaballa, 9-1
My hunch: Neither Turkson nor Sarah has such a good chance as those odds would seem to suggest, for different reasons: Sarah is too old (he will be 80 in June) and Turkson is too much of a lightweight. Conversely, I think the odds on Pizzaballa are going to shorten.
https://news.paddypower.com/politics/2025/04/23/next-pope-odds-favourites-succeed-francis-vatican-25-april-2025/
I think Sarah may have a better chance than you think, Ray. He's still an outside bet, but his age may actually be a plus for him if the cardinals decide that what they need now is a place holder until they get their horses together after the anarchy of Francis. Also in his favour is the fact that he's an African and -- let's be frank here -- a BLACK African. Against him is his uncompromising defence of the magisterium and the traditional values of the Church. A lot of the cardinals won't like that, I'm embarrassed to admit. However, If he sat on the throne of Peter, the question, "is the pope a Catholic?" would, once again, be rhetorical.
DeleteThe Hungarian cardinal Péter Erdő has also featured on those 'top papabili' lists; he seems to tick many boxes, and the quiet warmth with which he speaks may make up for a lack of obvous charisma. Just my penny's worth.
DeleteGadjo
From memory (not always reliable!) Erdö was the youngest cardinal taking part in the 2005 conclave that elected Benedict XVI, and was even mentioned a few times as a *papabile* himself.
Delete@Bell, replying to your post about Card. Sarah. The Catholic Herald and the Spectator both seem to be supporting your case (two links below). However, I remain unconvinced. Choosing a pope on the basis of his ethnicity or race would be an exercise in “identity politics”. It would undeniably have a certain appeal to the population at large but much less so, I think, to the College of Cardinals, whose job it is to analyse the problems that the Church is facing and then try and pick the candidate who would make the best job of dealing with those problems.
DeleteYet another eighty-year-old pope would be all too likely to make the Gemelli Hospital the main setting of the day-to-day management of the Catholic Church all over again. I think that is something the cardinals would rather avoid.
https://archive.ph/LTqBH
https://archive.ph/LTqBH
Correction. The second link should be:
Deletehttps://archive.ph/CUt81
There was always 'something of the night' about Francis. I suspect all the years of compromise required of his position in Argentina stamped itself on his soul.
ReplyDeleteI don't blame him.
If only Graham Greene were still alive he could write a novel about it!
DeleteWas that really Cardinal Re celebrating this morning's funeral Mass? I didn't recognise him. He looks too young to be 91. Maybe he'd be a good candidate at the coming conclave ...
ReplyDeleteI pray our new Pope demonstrates all the Christian values of compassion and caring the ' human touch" like Pope Francis combined with the intellectual fervour of Pope Benedict and appreciation and promotion of our wonderful traditions. It is possible to have both with an effective Catholic education programme which needs addressing. I would be personally delighted if the new Pope had a cat like Chico as well. Suppose that is asking a bit much but it does give a nod to our wonderful pets which God gave us to teach us how to love....Cressida
ReplyDelete""Joseph and Chico: The life of Pope Benedict XV1 as told by his cat." Catholic cats are good writers. Mine likes poetry:)
Deletehttps://seachurn.blogspot.com/2025/04/for-jack.html....When I saw this I thought of you....then again you are the only person I know who lives in Scotland:)
ReplyDeleteThe conclave will begin on Wednesday, May 7. It has just been announced.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2025-04/conclave-elect-new-pope-cardinals-beginning-date-may-2025.html
I’ve been doing a little googling in an attempt to fill in a serious gap in my knowledge about how a conclave actually works. My question is this: when a cardinal is engaged in doing his job, whether in his archdiocese somewhere if he’s a pastoral cardinal or in his office in the Vatican if he’s a curial cardinal, what difference does it make, in practice, if he’s a cardinal-bishop, a cardinal-priest, or a cardinal-deacon?
ReplyDeleteThe entry for “Cardinals” in the online Catholic Encyclopedia (link below), written more than a century ago, gives a long (long in the sense of TLDR) history of how, where, and when each of the three categories had its beginnings and how it developed over the course of the centuries, but nowhere, as far as I can see, does it answer questions such as, for example:
1. In the present-day Church, what powers does a cardinal-bishop enjoy that the other two ranks don’t?
2. When the cardinals are all assembled together in a conclave, as they will be next week, what can a cardinal-bishop do that the others can’t, or what duties are reserved for that rank alone? Chairing the assembly and counting votes, possibly, for instance?
Thanks for whatever light you can shed on the subject!
https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03333b.htm
As far as I'm aware, there's no practical difference between the ranks of cardinals. It's an honorific, I think, like awarding a priest the title of "Monseigneur." The Church has an honours system much more elaborate than even the British system, and like most of the titles awarded by the king, all pretty meaningless. Much more significant will be the fact that Francis -- in his humility -- chose not to live in the traditional papal apartments, instead moving into rooms which were normally used to house cardinals in the conclave. The problem is that, when a pope dies, his apartments are sealed and cannot be reopened by anyone except the next pope. Which means cardinals are being farmed out all over the place and are not in contact with each other outside the conclave. There will be far fewer "meetings in the margins", which is where much of the work actually gets done. One last piece of anarchy courtesy of Francis -- or am I being uncharitable?
DeleteAs far as I'm aware, there's no practical difference between the ranks of cardinals. It's an honorific, I think, like awarding a priest the title of "Monseigneur." The Church has an honours system much more elaborate than even the British system, and like most of the titles awarded by the king, all pretty meaningless. Much more significant will be the fact that Francis -- in his humility -- chose not to live in the traditional papal apartments, instead moving into rooms which were normally used to house cardinals in the conclave. The problem is that, when a pope dies, his apartments are sealed and cannot be reopened by anyone except the next pope. Which means cardinals are being farmed out all over the place and are not in contact with each other outside the conclave. There will be far fewer "meetings in the margins", which is where much of the work actually gets done. One last piece of anarchy courtesy of Francis -- or am I being uncharitable?
DeleteSo it’s just a status label, is that it? Like the difference between an MBE and an OBE, for instance, in the British honours system? I asked because I saw on another website that every pope elected in the modern period had previously been either a cardinal-bishop or a cardinal-priest, and that the last time a conclave picked a cardinal-deacon to be pope was several centuries ago. However, that was only someone posting on a comments thread. I’m not claiming it’s a known historical fact.
DeleteYes, just status. Is the Thistle higher than the Garter? Are either or both higher than the Bath? Who knows, except the anoraks. I wouldn't give it a lot of thought.
DeleteAs I understand it, a cardinal is 'just' a title for someone who acts as a kind of advisor to the pope, which is one of the possible etymologies of the word (from the Latin for hinge - a go-between between the pope and the church). Until the early 1900s, it was possible to become a lay cardinal, although that did carry with it the obligation to be ordained.
DeletePresumably, the pope need not even be a cardinal, since the office of pope logically pre-dates the creation of cardinals. Although from what I can see, there hasn't been a non-cardinal elected since Urban VI in the 14th century. I wonder if that's a matter of law or tradition.
I wonder if that's a matter of law or tradition.
ReplyDeleteThere is certainly no written law of any kind imposing any such restriction. At the same time, I think the practice rests on more than mere tradition. It might perhaps be true to say it has evolved into what used to be called, or maybe still is called, "customary law", defined as a system of rules and practices rooted in the traditions and customs of a community or social group, recognised as obligatory and binding.
Ahead of next week’s conclave, John Allen’s Crux website is posting a series of profiles, one each day, of some of the *papabile* . A brief excerpt from Allen’s profile of Card. Aveline, the archbishop of Marseille:
ReplyDelete... ... ...
Progressive Catholics especially tend to like what they see in Aveline. In some French Catholic circles he’s known as “John XXIV,” a reference not only to the reform-minded spirit of “Good Pope John” and the Second Vatican Council, but also to the fact that the smiling, somewhat frumpy and roly-poly Aveline bears a striking physical resemblance to John XXIII.
Yet Aveline is not an ideologue, and at various times over his career has been willing to buck liberal orthodoxy.
For instance, he’s not an advocate of uncontrolled immigration and has said that anyone who is “certainly doesn’t live in certain neighborhoods of many cities marked by a high unemployment rate, the drug trade, degradation and a lack of security.”
Aveline has also shown some sympathy to French Catholicism’s small but influential traditionalist wing. Among other things, he tried unsuccessfully to mediate a dispute in the Diocese of Toulon between Bishop Dominque Rey, who’s a personal friend, and the Vatican over issues such as welcoming traditionalist movements and ordaining large numbers of priests attached to the old Latin Mass. In the end, Rey was compelled to resign anyway in January, but traditionalists nonetheless remember Aveline’s efforts to help.
https://cruxnow.com/papal-transition/2025/04/papabile-of-the-day-cardinal-jean-marc-aveline
About Card. Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Allen writes, in part:
ReplyDelete... ... ...
The case for Pizzaballa as pope?
First of all, precisely because his life has been dominated by the complexities of the Middle East and the Israel/Palestinian divide, he’s never really been forced to take clear public positions on divisive doctrinal and pastoral issues. ... As a result, he doesn’t bring a lot of baggage into the conclave in terms of past ecclesiastical controversies, potentially making him attractive both to those seeking continuity with Pope Francis and those hoping for change.
Moreover, Pizzaballa’s record of straddling the Israeli/Palestinian divide, sometimes achieving the rare feat of seeming to be on both sides at once, could be a selling point in a conclave in which healing the internal Catholic divisions unleashed by the Pope Francis era may well seem a priority.
Certainly Pizzaballa’s reputation for astute financial management would come in handy at a time when the Vatican is facing a deep fiscal crisis, including looming shortfalls in its pension funds. The hope might be that if he bailed the Patriarchate of Jerusalem out of debt, maybe he could so the same thing for the Holy See.
https://cruxnow.com/papal-transition/2025/04/papabile-of-the-day-cardinal-pierbattista-pizzaballa
The Vatican is facing financial crisis because the Faithful won't put money on the plate, and the reason we won't is because we want the Faith as it was handed down for 2000 years. The Vatican is refusing to provide it, for whatever reason. Maybe it's the modernists. Maybe it's the Jesuits. Maybe they're the same thing. Whatever the reason, "popular" popes won't change it, but a faithful one will.
DeleteIt’s Card. Tagle’s turn today for the John Allen treatment at Crux. It’s a long, detailed profile, citing many instances in which Tagle has created a highly favorable impression, both at home in the Philippines and subsequent to his arrival in Rome. The concluding section, however, focuses on the arguments against his suitability for the papacy:
ReplyDelete... ... ...
In December 2019 Pope Francis named Tagle to head the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, effectively the Vatican’s missionary department. ... At around the same time, Tagle had been elected president of Caritas International, the Rome-based federation of Catholic charities around the world. Taken together, the two roles seemed to position him to be the de facto leader of the church across the developing world in the name of the pope.
Alas, things didn’t quite work out that way. Many observers found his tenure at the congregation, now the Dicastery for the Evangelization of Peoples, to be uninspired, and his oversight of Caritas led to an actual meltdown in 2022 when he was removed as president and the entire leadership team basically fired.
What’s the case for Tagle as pope?
To begin with, he’s an effective communicator and evangelist at a time when everyone agrees that mission, meaning attracting people to the faith, has to be a top priority for the next pope. His simple, natural style, coupled with his gift for playing to crowds and stirring both laughter and tears in almost equal measure, would make him an immediate star on the global stage.
In addition, Tagle would also put a face and a voice on the dynamism of the Catholic Church across the developing world, including in Asia, which with 23 cardinal electors will be an important force in this conclave. ...
The case against?
To put it bluntly, there are a number of observers in the church, including not a few cardinals, who privately believe that Tagle simply isn’t ready for prime time. They regard his public persona as superficial, and behind the scenes they say he’s had six years now to prove he can do the heavy lifting of real leadership in the Vatican without much to show for it.
That’s a special concern in a time when most cardinals feel the next pope has to be a strong governor, capable among other things of addressing the severe financial crisis facing the Vatican in the form of unfunded pension obligations and other deficits. If Tagle couldn’t effectively run Caritas, they may wonder, what hope does he have with the entire Vatican to oversee?
... ... ...
https://cruxnow.com/papal-transition/2025/04/papabile-of-the-day-cardinal-luis-antonio-chito-tagle
John Allen’s long, carefully constructed profile of Card. Tagle leads to two conclusions, I think. First, Tagle clearly achieves a very high score under the heading of mass audencie appeal. He is a compelling preacher and has the self-confidence to go with it. He would not be in the least daunted by the prospect of holding the attention of a crowd numbering in the millions at a World Youth Day event, as the newly elected Pope Francis did twelve short years ago, with great success, on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro. In Allen’s words, “His simple, natural style, coupled with his gift for playing to crowds and stirring both laughter and tears in almost equal measure, would make him an immediate star on the global stage.”
DeleteThat’s obviously a very good start for a prospective pope. No doubt about it. But is it enough? That’s the second conclusion, in the form of a question the cardinals are no doubt looking for an answer to, at this very moment, ahead of next week’s conclave.
I don't know if it's just me, but a lot of the media coverage - Catholic and secular - around the conclave feels a bit depressing. It seems like the most scared office in the Catholic Church has been reduced to the 3:15 at Cheltenham.
ReplyDeleteBeing pope is an office that very few men can hold well - history and scripture warn us of that. Surely the only question that matters should be, 'is this man holy?' Not, 'does this man align with my pre-existing political beliefs', which seems to be the trust of most of the commentary.
No, it's not just you.
Deletehttps://gript.ie/perrins-virgin-media-pope-francis/
Nothing wrong with holiness, but the cardinal electors will be looking for other qualifications as well. As John Allen noted in one of his profiles quoted above, “Certainly Pizzaballa’s reputation for astute financial management would come in handy at a time when the Vatican is facing a deep fiscal crisis, including looming shortfalls in its pension funds. The hope might be that if he bailed the Patriarchate of Jerusalem out of debt, maybe he could so the same thing for the Holy See.”
DeleteHoliness is the summit of Christian living, it's a prerequisite - and a commandment relayed by the first pope (1 Pet 1:15-16). My concern is that, in focusing on things like fiscal responsibly, public speaking ability, whatever, the Church will end up with a servant of the institution rather than a servant of Christ - and goodness knows she already has enough of those and they've done incalculable damage.
DeleteIt is the truth that sets us free, not our ability to balance the books. There must be a few people among the world's billions of Catholics who are good at admin and accounts: let them do it. The pope must be a man of truth and holiness above all else, or none of the rest of it matters. A solvent but godless church is a glittering, empty bauble. The Church needs, particularly now, a good shepherd - not a good accountant!
@Lain
DeleteThe Church needs, particularly now, a good shepherd - not a good accountant!
Yes, it does, and a good shepherd needs a good sheepdog. Misplaced trust in an unreliable subordinate can lead to the loss of the whole flock (Far From the Madding Crowd, chap. 5).
The Sloane Avenue real estate deal on which Card. Parolin’s Secretariat of State threw away hundreds of milliions of dollars is in the news once again, following yet another ruling by the British High Court. The news comes at an embarrassing moment for the cardinal. Might there possibly be a connection with his reported “blood pressure incident” on Wednesday afternoon?
ReplyDeleteBriefly, a High Court judge ruled that the Secretariat of State has to reimburse its former investment adviser, Raffaele Mincione, for one-half of his legal costs, meaning that the Vatican will have to fork out somewhere between $4 million and $5 million.
It’s in the Pillar this morning, and also on Vaticannews, though only in Italian so far, not yet in English.
https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/uk-court-orders-vatican-to-pay-mincione
https://www.vaticannews.va/it/vaticano/news/2025-05/alta-corte-londra-spese-processuali-segreteria-di-stato-mincione.html
Disestablishment of the C of E: coming soon to a parish near you? Private Eye sees signs that King Charles and Prince William would both be in favour of the change.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.private-eye.co.uk/news
It's not a terrible idea. One cannot serve two masters, and churches and clerics too close to the State tend to end up hopelessly compromised or Thomas Becket'd.
DeleteI wonder how much of the CofE will be left by William's reign. Those committed to Catholic doctrine (rather than just the vestments) have gone to Rome. A few oddballs have gone East. The 'middle of the road' parishes are withering on the vine, with exhausted vicars serving multiple parishes with tiny, aging congregations. That leaves only the evangelicals, who have no real ecclesiological reason to stay part of a struggling institution that's going to increasingly be a millstone to them.