The mind of God

How rich are the depths of God - how deep his wisdom and knowledge - and how impossible to penetrate his motives or understand his methods! Who could ever know the mod of the Lord? Who cold ever be his counsellor? Who could ever give him anything or lend him anything? All that exists comes from all. all is  by him and  for him. To him be glory for ever1 Amen.

Romans 11:33 - 36

A question put to us by St Paul himself is (Romans 11:34): Who could ever know the mind of the Lord?

How do we explain the way things are? Those big questions that our children ask when we least expect: Where did I come from? Why did grandpa die?  Is there really a God? Why doesn’t daddy live with us anymore? The list of questions, as you know, is long. Some of these questions may well be our own questions, maybe they were never answered to our own satisfaction when we first asked our own parents. Imagine then, attempting to know the mind of God.

There is no doubt that the sciences have been able to explain many of the questions we might have asked. We have an understanding of the planetary, solar and galaxy systems from Galileo and his successors. From the work of Kubler-Ross and others, we have an understanding of the process of death and suggestions of what might lie beyond. Social scientists and psychologists are able to make connections about the relationships we have and provide support when marriages and families break down. When our children learn about love, they know that is the reason they are conceived and welcomed into our families. The biology is no longer frightening.

There are still big questions, however, such as, How did life begin? Even, Why did life begin? That I would like answered. Knowing the mind of God would make getting answers so much easier. 

Science comes from the Latin word scientia meaning knowledge. And knowledge itself is acquired through education, skill and experience. Knowledge, according to Plato needed to be justified, true and believed if it was to truly be knowledge. This he and many others have explored in the philosophy of epistemology. So what knowledge do we have of God, or of his mind? What are our sources of this information? Our human reason has come up with several propositions for knowing all that needs to be known (also known as theories of everything) – e.g. string theory, loop quantum gravity, causal dynamical triangulations, quantum Einstein gravity and quantum gravity theories. One source that is not theory – but reliant on experience - experience of over three thousand years - is sacred scripture. Passed on by word of mouth, recorded in writing, edited, added to and held in the highest esteem, the mind of God was revealed, his intentions for his creation and his creatures made plain, his divine plan for us all is made known, his salvation made explicit though Jesus.

We need not seek to know what is in the mind of God, for he had already given his own son for us to know, love, trust and befriend – there is no secret theory, our God is an open book, and most extraordinarily we fin discover how rich are the depths of God (Romans 11:33).

Peter Douglas

Dark arts in pursuit of the seat of St Peter

by C Lamb

This summer, several voices long dissatisfied with Pope Francis have started to beat the drum roll for change. There has been a stream of press articles and social media posts, and last month two books were published, both titled The Next Pope. There is nothing unusual about chatter in Roman trattorias about who the next Pope might be, naturally exacerbated when the incumbent is in his eighties. In 2020, however, opponents of Francis are not only idly speculating, but channelling their energies into trying to influence the next conclave. There is going to be an almighty battle.

Let’s be clear: even though Francis is 83, and has run a gruelling schedule for seven and a half years as the 266th successor of St Peter, there are no indications that he is unwell or suffering from any specific health problem. Cardinal Michael Czerny SJ, one of Francis’ closest collaborators, told me during a webinar for The Tablet last month that the Pope had successfully adapted his ministry to the Covid-19 pandemic and was “in good health, good humour and good hope”.

Francis shows no signs of slowing down. Following his July “staycation” in the Casa Santa Marta, the Pope said last week that his forthcoming Wednesday general audiences would be devoted to Catholic Social Teaching, so that the Church can help “prepare the future” in the light of Covid-19. He continues to push through a programme of Vatican reforms, as we saw most recently with a raft of new appointments that included six women to the council that oversees Holy See finances.

In 1995, in a book also called The Next Pope, the papal biographer and Rome cor-

respondent of The Tablet, Peter Hebblethwaite, surveyed the possible successors to John Paul II, as did another distinguished Vaticanwatcher, John Allen, in 2002 in Conclave. At that time, however, the Polish Pope had held office for more than two decades and was suffering from Parkinson’s disease. Neither Hebblethwaite nor Allen were foolish enough to predict when the next conclave might begin; as Jesus warned, “you know neither the day nor the hour” (Matthew 25:13).

So where is the current talk of a new Pope coming from? The conclave chatter is loudest among a vocal minority of Catholics, mainly in the United States, who have made little secret of their hope that the Francis pontifi cate has been an unfortunate historical blip. He is an obstacle to their vision of a Church that emphasises doctrinal purity, defends the unfettered free market, and joins the culture wars to fight on the side of conservatives and traditionalists against liberals and progressives. Their goal is simple: to make sure the next man to be elected Pope follows their theological, political and social agenda.

Some of the campaign activity has more in common with the cynical politicking of Washington DC than with quiet reflection and patient discernment of spirits. Along with the new books, a project called the “Red Hat Report” is under way with the aim of preventing a repeat of the 2013 conclave.

Detailed dossiers on possible cardinal candidates at the next conclave are being prepared; launching the initiative at the Catholic University of America in 2018, the organisers said they had hired ex-FBI investigators and planned to delve into cardinals’ sexual orientation and to edit their Wikipedia entries to link them to scandals.

MEANWHILE, one of the books published this summer on the next Pope could be described in political jargon as “opposition research” seeking to push the conclave towards reversing the direction Francis has been taking the Church. Written by Edward Pentin, Rome correspondent for the National Catholic Register, and “an international team of scholars”, it offers profiles of 19 papabile, the men Pentin considers the most plausible candidates to be elected to succeed Francis.

Included on the Pentin shortlist are three cardinals among the most prominent conservative critics of the Francis reform agenda: the former Vatican doctrinal chief Gerhard Müller; leader of the English-speaking world’s traditionalist Catholics, Raymond Burke; and the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, Robert Sarah. The book is published by Sophia Institute Press, which has been behind several titles deeply hostile to this pontificate. It operates in partnership with Catholic media conglomerate EWTN (the Eternal Word Television Network), which regularly offers a platform to those unhappy with this Pope. The National Catholic Register is owned by EWTN.

The other “next Pope” book, written by St John Paul II biographer George Weigel, does not discuss possible successors to Francis.

Instead, it outlines the qualities Weigel regards as essential if the new Pope is to reverse the catastrophic direction in which he argues the Church is headed. The thinly veiled critique of the current papacy includes sharp disagreement with Francis’ decision not to respond to the four cardinals who challenged the orthodoxy of his opening of the door to a return to Communion for divorced and remarried Catholics. Weigel argues that the next Pope must avoid the temptation for what he calls “Catholic Lite”: the watering down of teaching on moral questions – contraception, abortion, divorce, homosexuality – is why, he says, the Church in Europe is moribund, and a new Pope is needed to reassert traditional teaching without compromise.

In a highly surprising move, every cardinal in the world has been sent a copy of Weigel’s book, along with a letter praising its contents from New York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan. The US prelate’s decision to champion a book so sharply critical of the Francis papacy appears to run contrary to John Paul II’s 1996 constitution forbidding cardinals from discussing papal successors. It again illustrates the problems Francis faces with some parts of the US hierarchy.

Behind these attempts to sway the next conclave is a desire to see the papacy play a more aggressive role in the global culture wars, something the Pope refuses to do. At a geopolitical level, his repeated – sometimes lonely – defence of migrants and asylum seekers and his bridge-building with other religions and cultures have been a powerful buffer against global forces, especially among conservative Catholics in the US who want to enlist the Catholic Church in their battle against liberalism, Islam and China.

Francis has been a counterweight to populist-nationalist trends seen in popular support for Donald Trump in the US, Viktor Orbán in Hungary and Italy’s right-wing leader Matteo Salvini. All seek to use Christian imagery and language in their political campaigning. But another Pope in the Francis mould would continue to resist hitching the Church’s wagon to the populist agenda, which is why the stakes at the next conclave are so high.

At the European Academy of Religion’s digital conference at the end of June, Professor Kristina Stoeckl, a sociologist at the University of Innsbruck, offered an analysis of the global culture wars. She argued that conservative Christians from across denominations were coalescing around a “traditional values” agenda which opposes liberal democratic protection of minorities. “They challenge, very often, the leadership of their Churches,” she explained during a keynote lecture. “Look at the criticism of Pope Francis by many conservative Catholics.”

It all means that the next conclave is likely to take place during a highly charged moment in global history, a moment in which there is a highly public battle over the very meaning of Christianity, with a minority doing everything it can to ensure that the leader of the Catholic Church is fully signed up to its campaign to oppose liberal values. My guess is that ideologically-driven books and dossiers will have little impact on the next conclave. Given the long history of attempts to manipulate them, papal elections have been deliberately designed to resist outside interference. Before the 2013 conclave, for example, Mario Cuomo, the former governor of New York, gave an interview to Italy’s Corriere della Sera endorsing Cardinal Dolan as “the right man for this extraordinary moment in history”. It went down like a lead balloon with the electors.

The Pope has chosen more than half of the men who will process into the Sistine Chapel and cast their votes for his successor in front of Michelangelo’s awe-inspiring fresco of The Last Judgement. Picking cardinals is the closest thing a Pope has to succession planning. With his choices from far-flung corners of the globe, such as Tonga, Panama, Sweden, Iraq, Pakistan and Cape Verde, Francis has radically reshaped the college of cardinals. He has not imposed any particular theological template. But he has been determined not to appoint any ideologically-driven culture warriors, and has i stead chosen pastors renowned for their closeness to their people and their witness to the Gospel.

The extraordinary geographical range of the cardinal electors will itself be a significant factor. It makes it harder for them to be influenced. Few share the same narrow preoccupations that obsess conservative lobby groups in the US. It's true, too, that many of the cardinal electors barely know each other. Many do not speak Italian or know their around the Roman Curia.

Those hoping to influence the next conclave are trying to exploit this by providing enough (negative) information about the candidates they dislike in order to pave the way for someone who shares their agenda. But I think it would be a mistake to underestimate the speed with which the newer cardinals will grasp the dynamics of Rome’s subtle yet brutal internal politics, and how a conclave works.

Most cardinal-electors will come to Rome for the next papal election with an open mind. They will make a discernment of the candidates during the crucial pre-conclave meetings and the many private dinners and gatherings which take place in the days that lead up to the voting, in which all cardinals, including those aged 80 or over and not entitled to vote, are fully involved. One essential requirement they will be looking for is that the candidate comes from a local Church with a strong faith.

“The Pope should somehow represent the whole Church, and he should have his roots in a truly unified local Church,” as Indian Cardinal Telesphore Toppo explains in Gerard O’Connell’s authoritative account of the 2013 conclave, The Election of Pope Francis.

The cardinals also value continuity. Each Bishop of Rome builds on the work of their predecessor. There is no such thing as a “selfmade Pope”. It is hard to see how a future Pope could turn the clock back on the Francis reforms, which are deeply rooted in the Second Vatican Council.

Rather than imposing a specific agenda on the Church, the Pope has put in place a leadership model based on discerning the movement of the Holy Spirit in the circumstances of the day. We cannot know what will happen at the next conclave, or who will emerge as the next Pope. But any attempt by lobby groups to uproot and discard the seeds of renewal planted during the Bergoglio pontificate will backfire.

As Cardinal Óscar Rodríguez Maradiaga, one of Francis’ close advisers, once told me: “The Church does not have a reverse gear.”