April 17, 2005

As the Novemdiales (the nine days of mourning the Pope from the day of the funeral) conclude, the Conclave begins in history’s oldest uninterrupted succession of authority. But this power transcends earthly rule, as it is that of the Keys of Heaven and Earth entrusted by our Lord to Peter and his successors. While praying for the soul of the late Pope John Paul II we can with faith and hope also ask his intercession for the Cardinal Electors.

Most are wise enough not to be unduly scandalized by the uninformed and unwitting commentary of the casual press, advising the Church on how to select a Pope who will agree to trim the truth to the editorial opinion of the local newspaper. The widespread veneration shown our deceased Pope was heartfelt, but not without a certain nervous element to vaporize the Papal office into a benign humanitarian agency. What many admired in the Pope were what they thought were his harmless animadversions on the world scene and what they called “controversial” were his insistence on natural law and divine revelation in opposition to modish social engineering.

A popular Pope may be a blessing, but every good Pope knows not to trust human applause because the clapping is fickle and falls silent at the Final Judgment. It is true that John Paul II was “a tireless advocate of peace” as Kofi Annan called him and “the number one humanist on this planet” in the estimation of Mikhail Gorbachev. They avoid mentioning that he believed himself to be the Successor of Peter and the infallible Vicar of Christ in matters of faith and morals. To overlook this is to avoid reality. One former president said the Pope had a “mixed legacy” but “sure knew how to draw a crowd.” It was an observation as indicting of the speaker as that of Colin Powell who said that the Pope’s “faith for the world transcended his Catholic background.” The well-intentioned remark is an insult to anyone who understands that the Pope had no “faith for the world” but faith only in God, just as Christ the High Priest prayed not for the world but for those in the world; and if the Church is true, nothing transcends Catholicism which is the very sacrament of transcendence.

The task of the Cardinals is to select a Pope who, as Paul warned Timothy, will not be a man-pleaser and who, in the shining shadow of Christ, always will be discomforted when all speak well of him. Recent generations have been blessed with such Pontiffs and we pray that the Holy Spirit will bless us again as he has in the raucous years of trial in the Church.

Fr. George W. Rutler