They told him it would be too risky for a man of his age who has been fighting a bronchial infection and shortness of breath for about a week now.

They said it was not a good idea to make such a long journey, for just a short stay, and try to pack in numerous private meetings and public events.

Sources inside the Vatican say Pope Francis, who will be 87 on December 17, was extremely upset when he received that advice. But in the end, he accepted it. Grudgingly.

No stopping Francis

The Holy See Press Office announced the cancellation of the papal trip last Tuesday afternoon, saying it was due to the fact that the pope was still dealing with flu-like symptoms and an inflammation of the lungs.

But that didn't stop Francis from holding his weekly general audience and a private meeting with a Scottish soccer team the very next day.

And then on Thursday morning, the day before he was supposed to set off to Dubai, he held eight audiences, as the Vatican calls the pope's meetings.

Three of these were semi-private gatherings with largish groups, during which the pope gave published speeches (he actually spoke off the cuff and handed out his prepared texts).

The other five meetings were with smaller groups or individuals.

These included the top brass of the Conference of Canadian Catholic Bishops (CCCB), the papal nuncio to Burundi, the rector of the Catholic University of Argentina, the bishop Hildesheim (Germany), and the two recipients of this year's "Ratzinger Prize" for theology.

Carrying out all this activity (and that was just in the morning and only what was officially in the pope's public diary) was likely Francis' way of saying to friends and foes alike, "Don't get any strange ideas - I'm still alive and kicking!"

And to emphasise that there's no health emergency here, his master of liturgical ceremonies on Tuesday published a slate of six celebrations that he will preside over during the two-week period spanning Christmas Eve and the January 7th Feast of the Baptism of the Lord.

Acting on instinct and personal initiative

None of this is exclusive to this pope. In fact, doing everything to convey the sense that all is well, despite having to deal with the normal aches and pains that come with old age, is something we saw during the final years of John Paul II's long pontificate.

The tired, old adage "the pope is in perfect health, until the minute after he's dead" seems to pertain to every Roman Pontiff.

What is somewhat extraordinary, though, is that Francis actually followed the advice of his doctors this time.

It is extraordinary only because he has not always done so. And because he has shown himself to be a pope who so often acts on instinct and personal initiative, rather than relying on institutional customs and protocols that have shaped and have become part of the modern day papacy and the Holy See.

In fact, Pope Francis has ignored or scrapped many of the protocols and customs. And thank God for that! This has mostly delighted his admirers.

And even some non-Catholics (and anti-Catholics) applaud him for stepping outside the mold, lionizing him as a Roman outsider and Church reformer who has taken on the big, bad institution of wealth and corruption known as the Vatican.

But by increasingly untethering himself from many of the constraints or checks, the Jesuit pope has set aside protocols that were originally designed to serve as safeguarding mechanisms.

Massimo Faggioli pointed this out more articulately in his latest "Signs of the Times" column:

"Francis has also marginalised the institutional filters that are meant to help craft his message and protect his authority.

"This is happening at time when a certain type of hyper-papalism is defining certain sectors of Catholicism, where the Church's voice on public issues is reduced to the dissemination or interpretation of whatever the pope says or does not say, and whatever he does or chooses not to do, and also how the wider public applauds or criticises his words and actions.

"In the higher echelons of the Church's hierarchy, it has become rare for a cardinal or a bishop to express an opinion different from the pope's without being seen as an enemy or a traitor."

And this brings us to reports that Francis has decided that he may strip the arch-traditionalist Cardinal Raymond Burke of his Vatican home and pension.

The 75-year-old American cardinal is one of several high-level Church officials (bishops and cardinals) who have been extremely critical of the pope's theological views, legislation, pastoral priorities and - in short - his pontificate.

The pope can do whatever he wants

Let's be clear: Francis has the authority to take away privileges from any cardinal.

According to the Church's law, about which Burke is considered to be an expert, the pope actually has the authority to do just about anything he wants. And, by law, he is not even obliged to justify his actions.

Further, "there is neither appeal nor recourse against a decision or a decree of the Roman Pontiff". Pope Francis did not write that - the 1983 Code of Canon Law did! (This is an urgent issue, but for another time.)

The Argentine pope, in any case, is not a legalist.

And he surely knows that while, "in virtue of his office he enjoys supreme, full, immediate and universal ordinary power in the Church, which he can always freely exercise", a pope must be shrewd in how he uses that power.

If he is seen to be acting indiscriminately, unevenly, or unjustly, he can actually weaken his own authority.

There is increasing concern, even among those who are enthusiastic supporters of this pontificate and its deeply evangelical theological-pastoral vision for the Church, that Francis may be doing that right now.

He is acting more and more in an isolated and personalist way, which has been disruptive and disorienting for many in the Church.

This is certainly true for those engaged in the Holy See's diplomatic efforts. Francis often side-steps them and carries out initiatives on his own, without even consulting his own Secretary of State or other top officials.

That doesn't mean he is not using the institutional levers at his disposal.

Indeed he is. He has issued numerous decrees, set up untold numbers of protocols for dealing with a variety of issues, but - again - he is seen to apply them unevenly and indiscriminately, or to not even apply them at all.

According to the Church's law, he is under no obligation to justify this, but it is troubling for many (or it should be) that a pope who is now in the process of making synodality the legacy of his pontificate, should act in such a ... non-synodal way.

Churchmen seeking a bit more order

Those of us who have been encouraged and energised by Pope Francis, especially by the vitality he has helped to pump back into the Church and for the force of good he has been in the world, should be concerned about how his unorthodox governing style will be judged by the men who will eventually elect his successor.

Assuming that Francis does not radically alter the current conclave system (an assumption we cannot take for granted, actually), it is more than just a possibility that the cardinal-electors will want to find a pope who is more tied to and respectful of established institutional protocols, especially regarding the Holy See.

As it has been said before, even if more than 70 percdent of the electors have been appointed by Francis, not every one of them is what one proverbially calls a "Francis bishop".

Some of the current pope's cardinals are clericalists, and actually pretty conservative or traditionalist.But all the men in red who will have to decide who succeeds him are classic "churchmen", with hardly any exceptions.

And that means they are men of a certain age who were formed and are steeped in the Church's institutional protocols and customs.

This pontificate, especially in the past few years, has been a bit too disruptive for many of them. Just how many is a good question.

But it seems likely that a majority of the cardinal-electors, even those who would like the next pope to carry forth Francis' project of synodality and vision for the Church, will seek someone who would do that in a more organised and institutional manner.

That means any cardinal seen to have a governing style similar to the current pope's would be eliminated as a serious candidate.

This is another reason why the next conclave looks to be very unpredictable. And that, too, will likely be part of the legacy of this dynamic, disruptive pontificate.

• Robert Mickens is the La Croix International Editor. Each week he publishes the Letter from Rome, unravelling the issues and policies that are alive in the Vatican and within the Church.
• First published in La Croix. Republished with permission

According to The Pillar and The Remnant websites Cardinal Ghirlanda (pictured), an important advisor to Pope Francis, had been tasked by the pope with drafting revisions to the conclave.

Ghirlanda called the reports "a pure lie".

The proposed alterations, as outlined by The Pillar and The Remnant, suggest a shift towards a more synodal approach.

These changes include the transformation of pre-conclave meetings (known as general congregations) into small-group discussions.

These meetings have been compared to the small-group format of the Synod on Synodality held in October.

Furthermore, participation in these meetings would be limited to cardinals under the age of 80, the ones eligible to vote for the next pope.

"I do not know anything about it, and any implication I have in it is a pure lie" Ghirlanda stated.

The Vatican's official spokesperson, Matteo Bruni, in a statement to CNA has also disavowed any knowledge of papal election reforms.

However The Pillar, citing "a senior canon lawyer close to the Vatican" reported that knowledge of the process to reform conclaves "is widespread in Vatican canonical circles, as is the role of Cardinal Ghirlanda."

Laypeople to participate

The Remnant also suggested Pope Francis is considering a proposal by Ghirlanda to allow laypeople to participate in the conclave.

This could include the selection of a new pope.

General congregations traditionally serve as preparatory meetings of the College of Cardinals.

They offer a platform for cardinals to acquaint themselves with the regulations governing conclaves.

During these gatherings, cardinals can express their views, seek clarification and make suggestions.

The papal election process and the sede vacante (the period between a pope's departure and the election of a new one) are regulated by St John Paul II's 1996 apostolic constitution, Universi Dominici Gregis and Pope Francis's 2022 apostolic constitution, Praedicate Evangelium.

However the conclave, held in the Sistine Chapel, is a strictly confidential affair.

All participating cardinals take an oath to maintain complete secrecy, subject to automatic excommunication if violated.

Sources

Catholic News Agency

The Pillar

CathNews New Zealand

Hungarian writer and polemicist Rod Dreher says Pell told him he was "so in favour" of conservative Hungarian Cardinal Peter Erdo (pictured) as Francis's successor.

Expecting an imminent conclave, Pell was preparing to play the role of kingmaker in any papal election, Dreher claims.

"He was hoping to crown a candidate who would take things in a very different direction from that pursued by Pope Francis."

Dreher notes Pell "wielded enormous influence across the church in the English-speaking world" and had a huge network of contacts, especially among the US bishops and friends in Rome.

He secretly wrote of Francis's papacy as a "catastrophe", Dreher says.

Two very different men

Francis and Dreher appeal to different people and have very different priorities and personalities.

Erdo's candidacy is attractive to conservatives.

He holds theological and political positions at odds with Francis.

He also maintains a relatively low-key media profile, unlike the media-savvy Francis.

During the synods on the family in 2014 and 2015, he held the position of relator general, which saw him outlining the synod discussions and summarising interventions.

Where Francis is open to change, Erdo's 2015 introductory speech at the synod focused on the Canon law status of divorced and remarried Catholics.

"They may only receive communion if they renounced sexual relations with their new spouse," he told synod attendees.

Integrating divorced and remarried Catholics into the Church is "different from admitting them to the Eucharist," he proclaimed.

Dreher says the speech reportedly surprised synod participants. Francis's pontificate had led them to expect a more open discussion on the topic.

In another contrasting view from Francis, Erdo has not spoken out strongly on the refugee crisis.

Francis, on the other hand, has made saving refugees one of the central features of his pontificate.

"It is obvious that everyone has the sacred right to try to survive in situations of famine, civil war and threats to life," Erdo said during an interview.

"You cannot force the Europeans to allow entrance - even illegally and without any control - to the entire world into their countries because doing so would break down public order, which is very attractive to those living in chaos."

Erdo is "a very fine canon lawyer," Pell pointed out. On the other hand, in Francis' pontificate, Rome had become "lawless," he said.

That Pell allegedly planned for a post-Francis future goes against Pope St John Paul II's rules on the conclave.

Published in 1996, the rules forbid "anyone, even if he is a cardinal, during the Pope's lifetime and without having consulted him, to make plans concerning the election of his successor, or to promise votes, or to make decisions in this regard in private gatherings."

Disregarding these, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York has sent copies of the book 'The Next Pope' to fellow US cardinals.

Francis, who is 86, has shown no signs of planning to step down.

Source

• The Tablet

The Australian was made a cardinal by St. Pope John Paul II in October 2003, while he was archbishop of Sydney. Ten years later, Pope Francis appointed Pell a member of his Council of Cardinals, and the year after, put him in charge of Vatican finances.

In 2017, Pell left Rome for Australia to defend his innocence of abuse charges.

After 404 days in prison in 2019, he was ultimately acquitted. He returned to live in Rome on Sept. 30, 2020, his first visit back to the city since his trial and imprisonment.

Read More

He was one of 13 new cardinals announced by Pope Francis at the end of his Angelus address on October 25th.

Nine of the new appointees are under the age of 80. They will be eligible to vote in a papal conclave along with 119 other cardinals. The other four churchmen will wear their red hats as a sign of esteem and honour.

Along with Gregory from the USA, the pope chose as cardinal electors two officials of the Roman Curia and bishops from Italy, Rwanda, the Philippines, Chile and Brunei.

The 72-year-old Gregory, ordained in his native Chicago in 1973, took over leadership of the capital's archdiocese last year after serving as archbishop of Atlanta since 2005.

Gregory has been praised for his handling of the sexual abuse scandal that has shaken the church.

He helped shape the church's "zero tolerance" response to the sexual abuse scandal while serving as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops from 2001 to 2004.

Gregory has also spoken recently about the importance of Catholic leaders working to combat the sin of racial discrimination. The Washington D.C. archdiocese has created an anti-racism initiative under his leadership, offering focused prayer and listening sessions.

Additionally, Gregory has drawn notice for his more inclusive treatment of LGBTQ Catholics. In 2014, he wrote an encouraging column about his conversations with a group of Catholic parents of LGBTQ children.

Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, which represents LGBTQ Catholics, said his group is "very excited" to see Gregory's elevation and connected it back to Francis' recently reported comments supporting civil unions for same-sex couples.

Recently the outspoken Gregory made headlines for issuing a statement critical of President Donald Trump's visit to the Saint John Paul II National Shrine.

That visit came just one day after the president made his controversial visit to an Episcopal church in Washington. This is where demonstrators were forcefully cleared to facilitate Trump's photo opportunity.

Gregory commented that he considered "it baffling and reprehensible that any Catholic facility would allow itself to be so egregiously misused and manipulated."

The consistory confirming the appointments will be held in late November. The details of the event are yet to be announced.

Due to Covid-19 restrictions on travel and gatherings, a non-traditional consistory may be organised.

The full list of the new cardinals, in the order named by the pope:

• Bishop Mario Grech, 63, secretary-general of the Synod of Bishops.
• Bishop Marcello Semeraro, 72, prefect of the Congregation for Saints' Causes.
• Archbishop Antoine Kambanda of Kigali, Rwanda, who will turn 62 Nov. 10.
• Archbishop Gregory, 72.
• Archbishop Jose F. Advincula of Capiz, Philippines, 68.
• Archbishop Celestino Aos Braco of Santiago, Chile, 75.
• Bishop Cornelius Sim, apostolic vicar of Brunei, 69.
• Archbishop Paolo Lojudice of Siena, 56.
• Father Mauro Gambetti, custos of the Sacred Convent of Assisi in Assisi, who was to celebrate his 55th birthday Oct. 27.
• Retired Bishop Felipe Arizmendi Esquivel of San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico, 80.
• Retired Archbishop Silvano M. Tomasi, a former nuncio, 80.
• Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher of the papal household, 86.
• Father Enrico Feroci, 80, former director of Rome's Caritas.

Sources

• Today
• Catholic News Service

The excitement of the election of a new pope always brings with it the expectation that he is a new Messiah and has the ability to fix what is broken with the Church. But a more realistic, and indeed preferable, aspiration is for him to acknowledge before all else the ways in which the Church is broken.

With Benedict's resignation acting as a circuit breaker, the world will be looking to Francis to fix the Church. But in reality his role will be to set the Church on the path to recovery, along the lines of the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. This will begin with the admission that the life of the Church is out of control in the face of clergy sexual abuse and other systemic challenges.

It would seem that such a disposition of humility and honesty is a more effective and inclusive path than attempting to turn the Church upside down. Such a radical approach would further polarise an already divided Church, and we know from his past actions that Francis is more of a bridge builder than a revolutionary.

He was far from liberation theology, which was seen to be the way to decisively switch the allegiance of the Catholic Church in Latin American from the ruling elites to the poor. He preferred to live with the dictatorships, to plead the cause of the poor, but make his statement by making radical changes to his own lifestyle. Continue reading

Sources

• Fr Michael Mullins in Eureka Street
• Image: The Independent
  

Michael Mullins is editor of Eureka Street

One of the regular segments of the show is "Site to Behold", in which we promote a website or app or YouTube video that we like. Having Brandon on the show was great, because he introduced me to a brand new website: Fantasy Conclave. The site went live shortly before our Hangout, so as I type this we're only 12 hours into the site's lifespan.

For those familiar with the concept of fantasy baseball or fantasy football, it's in that vein, but is obviously related to next month's conclave. You're only making three selections: Who will be elected pope? On which day will he be elected? What name will he take?

Now, there is the possibility that people will say this is an inappropriate thing to be involved in, just as many are critical of the concept of betting on who the next Pope will be. I just think betting on who the Pope will be, using real money, is a bit silly because it's more like finding a needle in a haystack than shooting fish in a barrel. I think there are probably 25 cardinals who have some degree of a chance of being chosen by their peers to replace the retiring Pope Benedict XVI. Continue reading

Sources

• The Catholic Soapbox
• Image: Patheos

The count, along with a few details of the brief conclave leading to the election of Pope Benedict XVI, was published Sept. 23 in Limes, a respected Italian journal usually focused on geopolitics.

On each of the four ballots, the magazine said, the prelate receiving the second-highest number of votes was Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires.

Limes said its information came from the diary of an anonymous cardinal who, while acknowledging he was violating his oath of secrecy, felt the results of the conclave votes should be part of the historic record.

The journal said it confirmed the diary's count with other cardinals.