What are the sites awaiting the new Pope?
The most important thing is to reunite the church, bring the church back to a harmony, to a unit. There are many people looking for a pope, a candidate, capable of “mending” the fragments of the church. Another major project is the question of the world synod. In his bed at the Gemelli Hospital, Pope Francis had planned a three-year program starting in the dioceses, episcopal conferences, continental meetings, to reach a kind of mini-duc. He spoke of an ecclesial assembly to put into practice the main principles of the final synod document. There were mainly three very important objectives. Women must be put in guide positions at all levels of the Universal Church and not only in the Vatican, as the Pope decided. Throughout the church, you must have participation organizations, because in Europe we have pastoral advice, diocesan councils but in other parts of the world, especially in the south, the bishop is still the absolute prince of his diocese. And the third principle was to introduce a mentality to account at all levels. This means, for example, that in a diocese after five years, the whole community finds itself to take stock of what they have done well and done. It is the transformation of the Church, which should no longer be a kind of absolute monarchy, a kind of militarized structure but a community church.
Is the pope chosen by the Holy Spirit?
Could the successor afford not to follow François’ advances?
Yes, but he won’t say it. In the church there are more elegant ways to block advances. We don’t say anything, we don’t do anything if we don’t agree with a project. But it is also necessary to take into account the fact that today’s church is not only divided between conservatives and reformers but also in regional realities. The billion and some four hundred million Catholics are no longer “Romanized”. Before it was unthinkable that a cardinal does not know Italian, today we have realities like Africa which has a real role and is no longer lagging behind Europe. For example, Cardinal Ambongo, at the head of the African episcopal conference, clearly said that he does not accept the blessing of LGBTQ +couples, while insisting that he was faithful to Pope Francis. So the future Pope will also have to take these regional realities into account.
-Filling the churches in Europe, bringing the faithful back to mass, is that still an objective?
The last three popes each had a different temperament, a different theological line and a different style. None managed to interrupt the secularization process. The European Church continued to lose religious women, to lose the faithful to mass and the confession has practically disappeared. The Swedish cardinal, Anders Arborelius, clearly said that it would be just that the new Pope comes from a country where Catholicism is expanding and not from a country where participation is in crisis. There is therefore also support for Asian names, for example.
Has there already been a papermaker?
The new pope will have a lot to do so …
Oui, (smile)there will be a lot of emotions in the room of tears, where the pope is going to put on the white cassock after the election and where he realizes the weight of his load.
