March 12, 2013      Martin Mallon  (Ireland)      Martin's previous articles

        Time to Change The Method of Papal Selection  
 

The present method of selecting a Pope is out of date. As Mary E Hunt writes:

Catholics believe that the Holy Spirit infuses the world with grace. Rather than watch a new pope emerge from the delegates who have been handpicked by the previous two popes, it is time for new ways of organizing and governing the more than one billion members of the Catholic community. …technology makes it possible..[i]

Hunt is correct, technology makes the present system of papal selection risable. There are approximately 5000 bishops in the world and if the Vatican II teaching on collegiality means anything it is that these bishops should be involved in the selection of the Pope, not 115 carefully selected bishops who all agree on the interpretation of Vatican II only as presented by the last two popes. And those were the selection criteria.  

What advantages would using the 5000 bishops effect?  

1)      The 1.2 billion catholics in the world would feel enfranchised as their bishop would have a say in the papal selection.

2)      The geographical location of bishops would better reflect that of the Catholic faithful, while the College of Cardinals does not.

3)      The heavily biased weighting in favour of Italy and Europe would vanish. (following on from 2 above)

 However, the major advantage of involving all the bishops in the selection of Popes is that the Holy Spirit would be given the chance to express himself more freely. In particular, if the selection of bishops was changed, as it should be, to give the Catholics in each diocese a say in the choice of their bishop then what a wonderful vista would open in front of us; the Holy Spirit would inspire the Church, the People of God, who would then select the bishops who would select the Pope. Every Catholic would be involved in the selection of the Pope together with the Holy Spirit. The Pope would truly be the choice of the People of God and the Holy Spirit.  

Not only that, but we have another teaching of Vatican II which states that:

 These faithful are by baptism made one body with Christ and are constituted among the People of God; they are in their own way made sharers in the priestly, prophetical, and kingly functions of Christ; and they carry out for their own part the mission of the whole Christian people in the Church and in the world.[ii]  

Helping to select Popes is part of the “kingly” function of the laity, so why are we not permitted to fulfill this function?  

Let us pray that the next Pope listens to the Holy Spirit and can read the signs of the times.