In Vatican City, the papacy now sits vacant. The College of Cardinals prepares for the conclave, and Catholics around the world await the election of a new pope. As this period of interregnum continues to be discussed, American Catholics cannot ascribe political language to the tradition of electing a new pope.
Since Pope Francisโ passing, rhetoric regarding the papacy has taken a tone of campaigning, similar to discussions about United States elections and political discourse, erroneously perpetuated by both myself and my peers. However, these discussions donโt make sense when discussing the conclave or cardinals who are considered โpapabile,โ eligible to be elected pope, particularly because of the language used.
The Catholic Church, at its heart, exists outside of politics, both on American soil and abroad. While Catholics throughout the world rely on their faith to inform their political consciousness, the political definitions of words like โconservativeโ and โliberalโ do not equate to church teaching in the same way. Applying those terms to either Pope Francis or his successor are inaccurate descriptors.
โFor secular opinion, a โliberalโ is someone whoโs pro-choice; pro-LGBTQ+, including support for gay marriage; and pro-womenโs rights, including seeing any religious group that bars women from ministry as retrograde and patriarchal,โ said Crux Catholic Media Editor John L. Allen Jr. in an October 2024 editorial.
This is not to say these issues cannot and are not discussed within the Catholic Church. However, describing Francis or any of his potential successors using politicized terms does more to hinder the goal of a unified church under the Vatican than help it because the church is not a political body. Rather, discussion about palpable cardinals more or less boils down to tradition versus progress.
โThere are Catholics who believe in a developing theology, that theology is not dead,โ said Yvonne Wilber, a practicing Catholic who is a librarian and head of undergraduate instruction and outreach at California Lutheran University.
Wilber attributed this more progressive way of thinking to U.S Catholics who tend to lean liberal, politically, while politically conservative U.S. Catholics tend to favor a more traditional interpretation of the faith, focusing largely on the right to life and liturgical practices going back to the Second Vatican Council, such as preferring the Latin Mass over Novus Ordo, or โNew Orderโ of the Catholic Mass promulgated by Pope Paul VI following Vatican II.
Teresa Runyon, pastoral associate at Padre Serra Parish in Camarillo, California, said much of the discourse surrounding the direction of the church comes down to how members practice individual spirituality, but political definitions of conservative or liberal tend to conflate the meaning of those spiritual practices.
โPeople have different ways of being church,โ Runyon said. โI think there are some ways some people see [the Catholic] Church as being more exclusive. And then, I think thereโs people who approach the Church as their lens of it is more inclusive, that itโs not just those who are doing all the right things in the Church.โ
Runyon said Francisโ focus on humanity and social concerns over following the rules challenged more traditional interpretations of the faith, and I believe Francisโs papacy superseded secular interpretations of what it means to be a practicing Catholic. Labeling him as a โliberalโ pope circumscribes his ministry to a view that is far too narrow.
โI see Francis just absolutely doing what Jesus has been telling us to do for 2,000 years,โ Runyon said. โTo feed the hungry, clothe the naked, sit with the sinners, I think this is the practical way of doing it.โ
Francisโ way of leading the church was a gift to me as a young person navigating my own Catholicism. His care for the most marginalized, both within and outside the Church, continues to inspire my own spiritual practice. His radical humility revitalized the role of the pontiff itself, and showed the world what servant leadership, first modeled by Christ, truly is.
Our American reliance on political rhetoric is not entirely our fault. We have no point of reference other than our democratic system and the ideologies it sows.
โThe American worldview is very much centered in individualism,โ Wilber said. โSo, when the Church is built on an ideal of community under servant leadership, thereโs going to be a deep disconnection between those two things.โ
The secrecy of the conclave is truly a gift, untouched by the air of partisanship so often seen in American politics. I invite you to challenge the language and thinking we, as Americans, tend to ascribe to faith.
โIโm hoping nobody in that conclave is gunning for, โI want to be the pope,โ Wilber said. โI think, โI want Godโs will to be done,โ is more the mindset. We hope that thatโs the heart of those who may get their names written down on those little slips of paper, but no one knows that. No one knows the heart of a man except God.โ
