By the time you read this, we may very well have a new pope. The conclave begins this Wednesday, May 7, and in modern times, it has not taken more than three days to elect a new pontiff for the Universal Church.
While we continue to pray for Pope Francis, we also pray that the Holy Spirit inspire the cardinal electors to discern and vote for the pope who the Church needs now and in the challenging decades to come.
The role of the pope
As the Vicar of Christ on earth, the Holy Father leads the entire Church as the visible point of unity for the world’s 1.4 billion Roman Catholics — a challenging task indeed!
As a successor of St. Peter, he strengthens and encourages the bishops, priests, Religious, and lay faithful to grow in their love for Jesus Christ and their service to the evangelizing task of the Gospel.
He is to guard and faithfully hand on the deposit of faith, the totality of divine revelation that God has entrusted to the Church, both through the Sacred Scriptures and the Tradition of the Faith.
The role of the pope is an essentially conservative one, as he seeks to preserve the unity of the Church in faith, liturgical practice, and doctrine.
Ponder for a minute the vastness and diversity of the Catholic Church. With 1.4 billion believers, the Church is present in every country, language, and culture.
Catholicism in Brazil looks very different in some ways than it does in the Congo or Australia or Belgium.
United in the essentials, the Church remains very diverse throughout the world in cultural expression, distinct spiritualities and devotions, and varied emphases within her general mission.
I certainly learned this reality firsthand, doing mission work in the Dominican Republic.
This diversity could easily split the Church into thousands of fragmented communities, without the ministry of the papacy, as a unifying and directive force at the center of the Church.
Remembering the first pope
The papacy is the oldest institution in the world, going all the way back to St. Peter and ancient Rome.
As we anticipate the election of a new pope, this week is an opportune moment to pray to St. Peter and meditate on his example of discipleship and service.
One of the first Apostles called by Christ, Peter stands out for his boldness, impetuousness, and weakness as well.
For three years, he lived with the Son of God, seeing all of the miracles, hearing the Lord’s preaching, and coming to understand Jesus’ identity and mission.
Peter confessed Jesus as the Christ at Caesarea Philippi, got out of the boat to walk on the water, saw the transfigured glory of the Lord on Tabor, and was in Gethsemane on Holy Thursday.
No other apostle knew the Lord so well, which makes his denial of even knowing Jesus and abandoning Him in His Passion even more painful.
Yet, the Lord does not give up on Peter. We just heard in the Gospel last Sunday how Jesus asks Peter if he loves Him three times, once for every denial, and then charges him to feed the sheep and care for the lambs of the Church.
The Lord does not rebuke or shame Peter for his betrayal but lifts him up and charges him to lead the Church.
This profound task of sacrifice and service will lead Peter to Rome, the capital of the empire, and ultimately to his crucifixion upside down on a hill called the Vatican.
This humble fisherman from Galilee, who had the remarkable fortune of encountering the Lord Jesus, believed, betrayed, loved, and failed, but ultimately persevered in the task of shepherding God’s flock, this new Church, born from the side of the crucified Christ and anointed in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Praying for the Church
As we pray for the election of the new pope, we ask the Lord to renew the entire Church in grace, power, faith, hope, and charity.
In this Jubilee Year, we boldly move forward here in our own diocese, seeking to renew our parishes and structures to better serve the mission given to us by the Lord Himself to go forth and make disciples.
St. Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, pray for us!