He escaped no one, at 86 years old and with obvious health problems – even though they insist that the Church is governed with the head and not with the knee – Francis' pontificate has entered its final phase. One last stage to which we can set a start date: December 31, 2022, the day of the death of Benedict XVI.
And not so much because the Pope emeritus has influenced his predecessor in these almost ten years. Instead. Benedict XVI has served as a brake on the current conservatives, on the cardinals who approached him in search of a leader who would champion his positions against the reforms promoted by Francisco.
Whether he liked it or not – the evidence points to the latter, but well – for Francis, Benedict XVI embodied an old and venerable father, as the founding patriarch of a family business who retired to leave the government in the hands of his offspring, but at the same time they still owe respect and obedience. Now, with the father dead, the son is left alone. He has no one ahead to contain him. But neither does he advise and guide you, if necessary.
The problem is that the 'son' is 86 years old and has several open fronts, many expectations created among his staunchest followers, and very few responses. However, despite his age – at which neither John Paul II, who died, nor Benedict XVI, by resignation, were already Popes – Bergoglio has no plans to resign, not even now that he does not have the condition of generating a Church with three living pontificates.
Quite the contrary, his agenda does not portend an immediate resignation. Francisco seems to have set the horizon for the moment at 2025. At the end of the month he begins a trip to Congo and South Sudan, in the summer he will go to Lisbon and it is very likely that he will end the year visiting Oceania. In October, the universal phase of the Synod of Synodality will begin in the Vatican, which was recently extended until 2024. And, the following year, the main course, the great jubilee to commemorate the 2025th anniversary of the birth of Christ.
A tight diary, inappropriate for a president close to 90 years old, but that does not prevent the Holy See, and in the Catholic Church itself, from seeing an atmosphere of the end of the pontificate, also typical of the dioceses when the age approaches in which canon law obliges bishops to submit their resignation.
A climate that is characterized by hasty decisions by pastors, aware that there is little time left and that governing with the left hand is no longer the most effective path. Meanwhile, those around them -the Curia in the case of the Pope- begin to move underground, trying to forge alliances that allow them to position themselves in the uncertain, but safe and close, future, but without completely breaking ties with a present. of which they do not know how long it will continue to be.
possible changes
On these decisions, Francisco has already given some samples, such as the intervention in Opus Dei, Caritas Internationalis or the Order of Malta. that are added to those already done in the Sodalicio de Vida Cristiana, the Heraldos del Evangelio and many other entities that have considered cleaning up for some reason.
But the great moment to check will be how far the Synod of Synodality will go. The more than 100 national syntheses are very diverse but few avoid dealing, in greater or lesser depth, with the controversial issues that hover over the intra-ecclesial debate: ordination of married couples, optional celibacy, a greater role for women in the Church, even reaching the priesthood, blessing of homosexual couples, revision of sexual morality or a greater involvement of the laity in the processes of government of the Church and in the election of priests and bishops.
For each one of them, Francisco has had very striking and media phrases -such as "I am who I am to judge" homosexuals or "we must not reproduce like rabbits", in reference to the numerous families-, but in practice it is not Not one line of Church doctrine has changed on these issues.
The closest he came was in the synod of the Amazon. In 2019, after many discussions, the final document approved in the presence of the Pope proposed the ordination of married men and the further study of the diaconate for women. It only depended on the Pope's decision whether or not to validate the proposals. He did not do it. In the exhortation with which he concluded the synod, he closed the door on both possibilities.
In between, one of the most tense episodes in the relations between the reigning Pontiff and the emeritus had occurred. Cardinal Sarah, prefect for Divine Worship, published a book, originally written jointly with Benedict XVI, in which he denied the possibility of ordination to 'viri probati' (married men). The text was heard as a condemnation of Francisco's intention to allow access to the priesthood to the married, foreseeable at the time, since his conclusions had not been published.
Sarah is forced to admit that she has written the book alone and has spoken alone with some notes that her Pope emeritus has provided her. Ratzinger's personal secretary, Georg Gänswein, who had facilitated the meeting, was also splashed and although he described the situation as a "misunderstanding", from that day on he stopped exercising his functions as prefect of the Papal Household and from sitting next to Francis in public hearings.
It was the only episode that revealed the differences in criteria between the two Popes, but the truth is that Benedict XVI has received in Mater Ecclesiae several cardinals who are dissatisfied with the drift that Francis was giving the Church. But, beyond converting to his tears, Benedict XVI has avoided leading any attempt to oppose Francis. He would not question it either on a question, such as the restriction of the mass by the Tridentine rite, in which Francis openly disavowed it, Benedict said publicly. Only now, after his death, have we known the "heartache" that this provision caused him, as revealed by his secretary.
close to the conclave
Now that Benedict will no longer carry out this work of containment, in this atmosphere of the end of his pontificate, the cardinals are beginning to mobilize for a conclave. In fact, it is almost certain that it has been one of the topics discussed, 'sottovoce', at meals and private meetings of those who have met these days in Rome, on the occasion of the funeral.
According to the norms, any type of "pacts, agreements, promises or other commitments" is prohibited, but nothing prevents them from sharing their positions on controversial issues, such as those that will be dealt with in the Synod, and grouping by sensitivities in the face of a future election.
In fact, their backs evident large currents among the cardinals. One, led by the German bishops, who seem willing to impose some of the reforms that will be discussed in the Synod, even at the cost of putting the Church on the brink of schism.
On the other hand, the American Church is installed in more traditional positions. The Pope, in the last consistory, broke an unwritten ecclesial norm and left the Archbishop of Los Angeles, who at that time was president of the Episcopal Conference, without a cardinalate, but he did elevate one of his suffragans, Bishop from San Diego, openly progressive. In addition to recent elections, the American Bishops' Conference has responded to the Pontiff and reaffirmed his position by not electing cardinals created by Francis to their posts, but rather archbishops close to John Paul II and Benedict XVI.
Movements that observe the restaurant of cardinals, attentive to the sympathy and support that they could obtain. While Francisco, now more alone, will continue to lead the ship, also of the Church, watched over to assess the direction that he decides to give it. And with the clear certainty, no matter how much he regrets it, that he is already in the last stage of his pontificate.
