Cogito Ergo Non Serviam
Pope Francis I, 1936-2025
His Holiness Pope Francis I died earlier today. The tributes have poured in from around the world, and speculation on his successor has naturally begun. While his legacy will not emerge for some time (as legacies always do), the church he leaves behind is rather different from the one that chose him to lead. His was a pastoral papacy, and the expectation is that the next pope will be inclined to follow in this approach. There is a body of thought that believes the church will now move right to placate its more conservative factions. As usual, this journal takes the view that if one knows who the electorate is, one can tell whom it will elect.
Pope Francis was the first pope from Latin America (although of Italian parentage, so some of the tradition of picking an Italian survives). He was the first Jesuit chosen to be pope. He was more tolerant of sinners than most of his predecessors, which is odd since the church believes everyone is born a sinner. Indeed, he made a special effort to included the excluded. One such moment will live in history when he said of LGBTQ+ people, "If they accept the Lord and have goodwill, who am I to judge them?" Lutheran Sunday School kids will recognize Matthew 7:1 influencing him.
This journal, of course, does not see any evidence of a divine being and prefers a world in which people do what is right because it is right rather than for fear of punishment if they do not. The papacy has done more harm than good historically, and the Church of Rome is at odds with the Carpenter of Nazareth. Francis, however, was on the side of decency, which counts for much more than being on the side of the angels.
So, as George III asks in "Hamilton," what comes next?
Unlike democracies, the franchise within the Catholic Church is not universal. Only cardinals, the princes of the church, get a say. And not all of them get to vote. While all cardinals can participate in the disucssions (debates) only those under the age of 80 may cast a ballor. The winner of the election must secure 2/3 + 1 of the votes.
The count is 252 cardinals over all. Of that figure, 135 are cardinal electors (under 80, those with the vote). Sky News reports that of the 135 eligible to vote, 53 of the cardinals from Europe; 23 from Asia; 20 from North America; 18 from Africa; 17 from South America; and four from Oceania. During his time as pontiff, Francis apppointed 163 new cardinals, of whom 110 are able to vote. Put differently, only 25 of them pre-date the papacy of Francis. His Holiness is most likely to have chosen cardinals who largely agreed with him on the direction of the church.
While that does not guarantee anything, it is pretty clear that the electorate favors a continuation of the direction Francis chose for the church. Of 135 turns out to be the number of voting cardinals (presuming no absences and so on), 91 votes will be required to elect a successor to Pope Francis. No geographical region has a majority locked in, and it is hard to see how this gets done in the first few ballots.
As many have learned through the film "Conclave," which is about such an election, the cardinals do not know each other intimate nor do they have a platform for becoming familiar with each other prior to the conclave where they will vote. While one does not exclude the possibility that the Holy Spirit can come to each of them in some way or another and whisper the same name to them over and over, there will be several potential popes in the running on the first ballot.
This pope will come into office at a fraught time in history. But then, don't they all?
© Copyright 2025 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.
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