Claud Cockburn, the perceptive British journalist, once remarked with characteristic assurance that Catholics could never run a book on the papal election. It would be blasphemy, he said, because Catholics believe that the Pope is chosen by the Holy Spirit.
I found the comment intriguing. It was factually counter-intuitive because Catholics I knew were prepared to bet on anything, even the chances of an echidna making it across a highway.
Certainly most Catholics would have regarded betting on the papal election as in bad taste. This was family, so betting on the Pope would be like running a book on whom your sister would marry.
But to call it blasphemy is a large claim. It implies that the Spirit alone rides the winner past the post, that all the form the runners have previously shown and all their training are irrelevant, and that the Holy Spirit inspires only those who are on the winner, not those on losing mounts.
It is true some Catholics take this approach to statements by popes and councils, arguing that the Spirit inspires their decisions and acts only through those who favour them. The minority who have reservations about their wisdom are deprived of the Spirit, except when they come to accept the majority decision. The Spirit continues to inspire Church leaders to state authoritatively the meaning of Council texts and define their historical context.
This approach does affirm the Christian belief that the Holy Spirit works within the Church, including through the bishops and Pope. But it effectively puts the Spirit at the disposal of the Church teachers, who can write their slate of winners for the Spirit to sign off on.
Reflection on the lived experience of Catholics suggests the Spirit works in the Church and in all the relationships that make up the daily life of the Church, including those between teachers and hearers. The relationships also include casual and more formal conversations between Catholics about faith, the debates between Catholics of different views, in the response to Church discipline and statements as well as in the making of statements.
So in papal elections the Spirit will be in all the prayers, conversations, cabals, persuasion, self-effacement and self-promotion that are part of any human election, and will be with each of the candidates before and after.
The fact that the Spirit works through so many broadly political human activities suggests that it would be theoretically possible to run an informed book on the papal election without insulting the Spirit. Continue reading
– Michael Mullins is editor of Eureka Street