A s a confessing Lutheran, I have a confession to make: the intrigue of Papal succession fascinates me to no end. My interest began with an account of the succession of Rodrigo Borgia to the throne of Saint Peter in the pivotal year of 1492. It is widely assumed that Borgia attained this office through bribery.
One account has it that Borgia placed the bribes in the electing Cardinals’ evening meal of roast chicken.
Cardinal Maria Martini (Italy) — The Liberals’ Darling
In 2001 it was widely known that Martini wished to call a new ecumenical council for church reform. In 1997 he delivered the Several Roads to Emmaus address to the 43rd Plenary Assembly of Italian bishops, where he called for certain changes to be made to the text of the liturgy. “We must pay great attention to the constant changes in our target-group, be it negatively (habit or surfeit) or positively (the emergence of new existential questions). We must rethink our formulae and activities regularly and question them again and again.”
In 1996 BASIC (Brothers and Sisters in Christ) commended Martini for working towards the ordination of women priests in the church. This is BASIC’s primary goal and their theological knowledge is painfully limited on these matters. In 2005 Martini retired to study the bible at Jerusalem, yet despite this retirement he should still be numbered among the favorites to succeed John Paul II if the liberal bloc of the Catholic Church unites behind him. Furthermore his advanced age can be counted in his favor, as the Roman Curia will not want another young, long-reigning pope to come out of this election.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (Bavaria) — The Grand Inquisitor
Der Spiegel mentioned him a possible successor to the throne of St. Peter on February 14
Ratzinger was also responsible for the 2004 firestorm over his proposal to bar pro-choice elected officials from communion. He argued that such officials were not respecting freedom, but cooperating with evil. “From the moral standpoint it is never licit to cooperate formally in evil….This cooperation can never be justified either by invoking respect for the freedom of others or by appealing to the fact that civil law permits it or requires it”
He also speaks favorable of the Eucharist Fast on certain days like Good Friday, and supports withholding communion to remarried persons, both practices being long-abandoned in much of the church. He has also publicly repudiated calls for a Third Vatican Council (A council by Martini) with the statement that Vatican II is still not fully understood.
Ratzinger’s support of Marian Doctrine within the church is indicative of his whole stance towards the church. In the conclusion of his speech at the Pastoral Congress of the Diocese of Aversa (dedicated to re-reading the documents of Vatican II) Ratzinger compares the Roman Curia to Mary, Mother of Jesus, in that “It is a woman. It is a Mother. It is alive. A Marian understanding of the Church is totally opposed to the concept of the Church as a bureaucracy or a simple organization. We cannot make the Church, we must be the church….Only by being Marian can we become the church. At its very beginning the Church was not made but given birth. She existed in the soul of Mary from the moment she uttered her first fiat…… Mary shows us the way”
With this stance, Ratzinger would call the church back to what it has been rather than forward to what it may become.
Cardinal Francis Arinze (Nigeria) — Son of Jacob
Is the church ready for another black pope? Believe it or not Pope Gelasius I (of the infamous Gelasian doctrine of the two swords) was black; but he reigned in 492 AD. In the last 1500 years, race relations have almost reached the point where we can return to the practice of 492 AD. In addition to improving race relations, Arinze has warm relations with the Muslim world, and given the Roman trend towards universalism he could be a player in this next election. His election could be seen as a sign of the importance of Africa to the Christian world. Unlike modernized societies in Europe and the United States where faith is in decline, Africa remains a growing Christian nation. Arinze’s close ties to the Islamic world can best be summed up by his address to the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding in Georgetown University on June 5
Using the golden rule as his example Arinze states: “The right to spread one’s religion should be upheld, as long as it is carried out with due respect for human dignity.”
Despite the strong wishes of the people of Nigeria, Arinze will be considered a dark horse. Among those who would like to see a pope come from outside Europe, there are twenty-seven Latin American cardinals who believe that a Latino Pope should occupy the throne of St. Peter. And Pope John Paul II still sees the African Church (despite it producing luminaries like St. Augustine) as new to the Catholic faith. Though Arinze’s tribe, the Ibo, claim to be descended from Jacob, I believe that his election would be a major surprise.
Other candidates include Martini’s successor in Milan, Archbishop Dionigi Tettamanzi and fellow Italian Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re. With three likely candidates, the Papal throne might be Italian again. Latin America also has three long shot candidates, although in my opinion the 27 Cardinals are likely to split on these three men. They are Cardinal Claudio Hummes of Brazil, Archbishop Jaime Ortega y Alimino of Havana, and Archbishop Oscar Rodriguez Maridaga of Tegucigalpa, Honduras. The Brazilian Hummes has been mentioned before as a possible successor, but other two are relatively new to the succession scene. Finally, there is Archbishop Jean-Marie Lustiger of Paris, the son of Jewish holocaust survivors. The joke in Paris runs: “What’s the difference between the head Rabbi of Paris and the Archbishop of Paris?” — “The Archbishop speaks Yiddish.” Lustiger would appeal to the Jewish community if elected, but with France rapidly throwing off religion for science and postmodern thought, Lustiger might slide out of the race.
The truth of the matter is that the real race is between the conservative Faction led by Ratzinger and the liberal Faction led by Martini. Ratzinger would represent a return to a semblance of normalcy, while Martini would undoubtedly lead the Vatican III crowd over the precipice into such issues as women’s ordination. The question for Lutherans is, How do we react? Do we celebrate if either is elected? The fact is Martini and the liberals will do great damage to the Roman Curia with his policy of Liberalization and Ecumenicalism. On the other hand, Ratzinger might pull the Catholic Church back from the precipice and give Lutherans a lot more relevance in North America with his conservative policies. (Would not many who converted on the basis of an easy-going Vatican II policy be looking for another church in which they could be more comfortable?) Such an election could be celebrated by both Lutherans and Catholics, although it would not be Lutherans and Catholics together. The question before all of now is how long will John Paul II continue to reign? He has already surpassed his predecessors in the sheer length of his reign and has left his mark on the Roman Curia. As Lutherans we see the intimate flaws in the doctrine of the Roman Curia that will be brought to bear in the immediate succession. That’s a spectacle that I am looking forward to.
Notes
The Catholic Encyclopedia admits that the allegation that Borgia "obtained the papacy through simony was the general belief ... and is not improbable ..., though it would be difficult to prove it juridically, at any rate, as the law then stood the election was valid." CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Pope Alexander VI (The elipsis in the quote take the place of long references in the encyclopedia and do not represent omitted words of the sentence.)
Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini “He Explained Scripture to Us” Address to the 43rd Plenary Assemply of the Italian Bishops Conference May 1997 (Tr: Henry Wansbrough) Ref: Dei Verbum February, 1998.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger “Concerning the Reply of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on the Teaching Contained in the Apostolic Letter ‘Ordinatio Sacerdotalis” October 28th, 1995.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger “Worthiness to Receive Holy Communion-General Principles” June 2004.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger “Ecclesiology of Vatican II” Conference of Cardinal Ratzinger at the opening of the Pastoral Congress of the Diocese of Aversa. Taken from L’Osservatore Romano (Weekly English Edition) 2001.
Cardinal Francis Arinze “Christian-Muslim Relations in the 21st Century” June 5, 1997.
Arinze, 6.