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WHEN CARDINAL JORGE Mario Bergoglio appeared on the papal balcony as Francis on March 13, 2013, he joked that in electing a new Pope “it seems that my brother cardinals have gone to the ends of the earth to get one… but here we are!”
Long considered an Italian institution, the Polish Pontiff John Paul II became the first non-Italian Pope in 455 years when he was elected in 1978. It was a trend that continued with Benedict XVI – a German – in 2005, and, of course, the Argentine Francis in 2013.
Francis was a Pope of firsts, the first Jesuit Pope, the first Pope from Latin America and the first Pope from what westerners with a European lens describe as the ‘new world’.
From his earliest pronouncements as Pope, Francis made it clear that he wanted to shift focus away from Europe and concentrate more on the global Church.
At one level, this is because it is this global Church that he is more familiar with. At a deeper level, it is the Church outside of Europe that is growing and continuing to increase attendance.
Francis looked to his two immediate predecessors, both of whom expended considerable energy trying to get Europeans to appreciate their deep Christian roots, and saw they were unable to arrest the decline.
Francis believed passionately that it was the existential peripheries – those places far from Europe where Christianity is thriving – that would help Europe to rediscover the Faith.
He also worked hard to rebalance influence in the Church away from Europe so that the Church was more representative of the global membership.
Pope Francis has transformed the College of Cardinals – the elite bloc of Churchmen whose sole right it is to elect a new Pope – adding members from far-flung parts of the world in the hope that they will bring a different perspective, and crucially the perspective of poorer nations.
In 1939, for example, 55% of the cardinals who elected Pius XII were Italian. Today, Italians make up just 20% of those cardinals under 80 who are eligible to vote.
Of the 138 men eligible to elect Francis’ successor at a conclave in the Sistine Chapel, 54 are from Europe, 24 from Asia, 18 each from South America and Africa, 16 from North America, four from Central America and four from Oceania.
Ireland will not have a vote at the conclave since 85-year-old Cardinal Séan Brady lost the right to vote when he turned 80. Neither his successor in Armagh Archbishop Eamon Martin nor the Archbishop of Dublin Dermot Farrell have been given the coveted ‘red hat’ and admitted to the College of Cardinals.
An Irishman has never been elected Pope, and since the group usually chooses a Pope from among its own members, we can say with almost 100% certainty that there will not be an Irish Pope.
However, one influential Irishman to watch is Drimnagh-native Cardinal Kevin Farrell. He holds the position of Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church and is therefore responsible for organising the papal election and assisting in the running of the Church in the period of vacancy known as sede vacante (the vacant see).
Before there is a vacancy in the papacy – either as a result of the Pope dying or a Pope stepping down – it is considered la brutta figura (creating a bad impression) to discuss possible contenders, and canvassing or electioneering is strictly forbidden.
That being said, any Vaticanologist worth his or her weight in salt always has a list of so-called papabili – the men who they think could become Pope.
It is a notoriously risky business, and the old saying in Rome is that he who enters a conclave as Pope exits as a cardinal, meaning there’s no guarantee one of the cardinals thought to be a frontrunner will actually be chosen.
Before thinking of a candidate, most cardinals will reflect on the sort of Pope they want. Before his election, Francis had emerged as someone who would prioritise reform. His predecessor, Benedict XVI, had been seen by his confrères as someone who would continue the ministry of John Paul II. So, a Pope in the mould of Francis, or someone radically different?
Age is also likely to feature. A young-ish Pope, as John Paul II was in 1978 aged 58, is likely to have a long pontificate. An older man, like John XXIII who was about to turn 77 in 1959 will have a short pontificate.
Geography will also play an increasingly key role. Many of the cardinals from Asia and Africa feel that the Church in the global south has long since come of age, and they are keen to assert this on the global stage. They are unlikely to throw their weight behind a candidate who is European or North American.
As the success of the hit movie Conclave shows, the most elaborate electoral system in human history – cardinals locked in a chapel letting the world know whether we have a new Pope or not by smoke signals – has lost none of its power to captivate and fascinate.
Michael Kelly is Director of Public Affairs for the papal charity Aid to the Church in Need, Ireland. A former editor of the Irish Catholic, he is an expert on Vatican affairs and has covered papal transitions in 2005 and 2013.
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Nothing like a Catholic Church bashing from The Journal, such bigotry is always evident
@Mary Toilet: I’ve been saying it for years Mary, the only religion The Journal kicks lumps out of is Catholicism. You never hear a peep outta them about Islam!
@Mary Toilet: Nothing better than a catholic church bashing!! Well done journal…
@Paul Gorry: If you’re not religious, at least try and be a good person as hard as that is for you.
@Paul Gorry: pipe down, little keyboard warrior
@Andy Felthersnatch: iam an ex religious person Andy because an Apparently good person in a frock changed my mind .
@Mary Toilet: spoofer..
@Paul Gorry: pipe down, there’s a good lad
@Mary Toilet: ye hate negative attention spoofer it’s all over your replies…
@Paul Gorry: go to sleep little, keyboard warrior
@Andy Felthersnatch: Drink, feck, arse, girls…..
@Paul Gorry: Mary and Andy remind me of the Bill Murray quote, it’s difficult to win an argument with an intelligent person but impossible to win one with a stupid person. Leave them to their mouthbreathing
@Andy Felthersnatch: All religion is a scourge. Given that Catholicism is unquestionably the largest paedophile ring we know of in human history it’s mad to think that it’s probably the tip of the iceberg.
The Church should not be running any schools at all, get this bronze age superstition out of children’s lives, especially the Catholic church with their track record on child abuse should not be allowed to have anything remotely to do with public schools
@Larissa Caroline Nikolaus: Absolutely. Let them learn it at home and in their church if they want. I’d love to know what 69% would be if it only included school children and their parents.
@Larissa Caroline Nikolaus: leave it to the Muslims
@Larissa Caroline Nikolaus: Sent your brats to a non-catholic school, easy peasy or does that conflict with your life coz the school on your doorstep happens to be run by the church?
@Larissa Caroline Nikolaus: The shîte that is being pushed on kids now is far more dangerous and nonsensical than it ever was. At least the church didn’t tell kids you can be whatever sex you want to be or a cat if you were feeling a bit feline. The new “educators” are far more insidious and sinister than they’ve ever been.
@Larissa Caroline Nikolaus: Halloween isn’t for another few days. You can take off your kid’s make-up
@Regular John: nah the church banged them themselves
@Mary Toilet: Inshallah….Sokoran! ;~}
@Regular John: lol ya the cult of sex and shame marginalised women and those of a different orientation yet they were guilty of not protecting children from abuse or violence and brainwashed them into mythical stories of donkey rides in the middle East.
@Mary Toilet: oh dear Mary. You reveal far more than you might wish. You do know Allah yahweh and your god is the same abrahamic god you have all deluded yourselves with. Its all the same myth from the same place in the world and its all plagiarised from Judaism.
@Regular John: no the church sexually abused kids and also took kids away from their mothers and sold them to the highest bidder.
@Regular John: No they did far worse!
@Regular John: You’d rather tell kids they can’t be what they want? How fkn sound of you!! kappa
@Chutes: They definitely can’t change their chromosomes
@: Either make sense or be quiet, you display only your clear ignorance!
@Chutes: They can play dress-up, but it’s not real.
@Regular John: Have you not got the good sense to realise kids have the world of information at their fingertips now, just like you? Sure, you just go blame the wrong crowd for the wrong thing like the usefully manipulated mouthpiece you clearly are!
Think will ya ffs!!
@: You’re ignorant. Folks like you are the reason young kids questioning their identities suffer in silence until some feel they have no option but take their lives.
@Chutes:
Folks like you are the reason kids question their identities in the first place.
@biggybald:
I’m no fan of the church either.
@Regular John: With which kind of folk do you think a kid questioning would be more likely to thrive?
You and your ilk are protesting reality! Just because you can’t tolerate the new realities of the world!
That’s on you not me!
@Chutes:
I’m protesting reality ??? Lol… I’m not the one identifying as a frying pan !
What exactly is my “ilk” anyway ? You know nothing about me.
@Larissa Caroline Nikolaus: You look like more of a danger to kids than any priest does.
@Chutes: Theres only two genders and kids love god.
Well excuse me !
Frying pans are a gender, please do not discriminate. What have frying pans ever done to you ? FP lives matter !
There’s only two ends to a spectrum and we all live inbetween. If your god is at odds with that, it’s time he joined Zeus and the rest of the primitive ‘gods’.
@Brendan Tannam: There’s only two genders: male and female. Mental illnesses are not genders.
ps. I’m an an atheist.
@Larissa Caroline Nikolaus: speak for yourself not everyone has the belief you have.
@Mary Toilet: I’d rather a Iman in charge of my kid’s education than a Catholic priest. Priests should never be allowed to have any contact with children.
Typical Journal, put up an article to appease the Atheists and while they’re at it, leave the comments open. A complete hypo-critical rag of a newspaper app.
@Andy Felthersnatch: so Catholicism can’t be criticised? Keep your head in the sand like a good lad.
@Damien Leahy: Right back at ye, Catholicism is the only religion which is ever criticised coz it’s fashionable to do so. With all the death and destruction at the hands of other denominations, Jews and Muslims always get a free pass.
@Andy Felthersnatch: why are you reading it so?
@Andy Felthersnatch: really? It’s the only religion criticised? Are you well like.
@Andy Felthersnatch: Yesh cos no one had a bad word to say about Judaism and Islam, especially these days.
@Andy Felthersnatch: Such nonsense!
@Andy Felthersnatch: If a religion requires children to be indoctrinated in it at school and prevented from learning about the hundreds of other religions that people cleave to then it is fundamentally weak.
Is your faith that weak, and if so why should anyone care if it fades out just like worship of Jupiter or Zeus?
Parents with children in these schools got to vote whether to change their school from a catholic ethos to a non-denominational ethos. So they obviously voted to remain catholic. While I understand where educate together are coming from how the hell could schools organise and let these parents vote? How could you guarantee that these parents were not voting in other schools also. I would prefer schools use their resources to teach children. They voted in our local school and 80% of parents voted to remain with the catholic ethos. I voted to change but thats the joy of living in a democracy you might not agree with decision but the majority rules.
@Maria Kelly: Democracy?? We had the same vote. An open letter survey sent to the school secretary is hardly a way to run a vote. It’s a joke. The church still control this country with an Iron fist. They are making billions out of private hospitals. An organisation that was found to intentionally hide child abusers (Ryan Report, Murphy Report) should not be patron of 80% of primary schools. Get rid of them ASAP !!
Bit of a cheap shot journal, church bashing on a Sunday morning with comments open. Trying to deflect from the bigger issues?
@Dissasociated Follower:
Better than bashin’ the baldy bishop whilst takin’ confession or worse yet swingin’ with some altered boys in the sarcristy!
Let’s get some facts about CSA – the usual excuse for secularising schools here. A US Prof Shakeshaft made a study in 2004, 156-page report “Educator Sexual Misconduct: A Synthesis of Existing Literature”. Her conclusions are devastating-for detractors of the RC Church. “So we think the Catholic Church has a problem?” Her report emphasised the enormity of CSA in US public schools vastly exceeded CSA by RC priests, using the recently issued John Jay Report as her benchmark. Shakeshaft estimated 290,000 students were sexually abused by US public school employees from 1991-2000. This as opposed to 12,000 victims of priests over the 50 years examined by the John Jay Board. She said “the physical sexual abuse of students in public schools is more than 100 times the abuse by priests.”
As long as they keep the trans nonsense and other rubbish like Critical Race Theory out of schools, I’ve no problem.
@Dave Callaghan: If I see any pride flags or Palestine flags in my childrens school, they’re coming down!
If any of the Islamic festivals are acknowledged then Christmas and Easter decorations are going up!
The only flag that should be seen in schools is the Irish one
@Finn Barr:
No pi$$y paypal flegs either, they’re highly morally bankrupting too!
@Dave Callaghan: So ur a bigoted racist is what ur saying then?
@Chutes: I think he’s saying if you’re a transwoman, don’t forget to get your prostate checked every year
@: Once you hit a certain age, that’s good advice. Your point? Come on, be brave, out with the truth about who you are!!
@Dave Callaghan: The largest Peado ring to have ever existed and you’re fine with it! lol, tell me you’ve no kids without telling me ffs
@Chutes: My point is that it’s good advice for a man, not a transvestite dressed up as a man, because they haven’t got prostates.
@Thesaltyurchin: You’ve made that same remark a couple of times now. Do you have any evidence that the Catholic Church is the biggest paedo ring to have ever existed or is it just something you like to say?
@Dancey McDonagh: LOL… Seriously? People are mad. Okay here, the most recent one is in Spain, the starting estimate is 200,000 abused. I don’t want to get in trouble for posting links to other media sources so maybe google it.
I’m on the back foot here. I honestly thought the church had left the schools. My kids are grown up. I think the church is now made up of old people and foreign converts and kids who partake in the sacraments having not seen the inside of a church since the last sacrament, brought by mothers in badly applied fake tans and attire appropriate for a nightclub. It’s kinda pathetic and not at all helpful to children of any age.
@Anna Carr (Morrigan_Dubh): lol. Got it in one.
Schools should not be under any religious patronage in 2023.
The catholic church is for the the older generation… leave our kids alone..
@Paul Gorry:
It’s not the church you need to worry about now, there’s a new cult of groomers in town now.
@Regular John: Shame there’s no track record or evidence to that. Spains up next, lets see what they do.
@Thesaltyurchin:
A lot of the abuse carried out by the church went unpunished because there was “no evidence”.
Religion has no place in the education system. Its that simple. Virgin births and other outlandish teaching are outdated, easily disproven and an absolute insult to the human intellect. This process is long overdue.
@Michael O Driscoll: yeah, how dare Edmund Rice bring about free education, your ignorance and bigotry is noted
@Mary Toilet: Not to worry, you’re misguided comment is in your surname.
@Michael O Driscoll: prejudicial bigot
@Mary Toilet: prejudicial bigot? Not here I’m afraid Ms. Toilet. Just an ordinary bloke in touch with reality and not someone parading a personal delusion to the masses. You’re ignorance is noted also ;-)
@Michael O Driscoll:
A virgin birth at 12yo by all accounts within that much edited fairytail, chapter and verse!! The library louts of The Irish Light Brigade should be dispatched post haste to seek and destroy this paedo publication once and for all!
@Michael O Driscoll: If any religion is taught then ALL religions should be taught, or at least as many as feasible with none of them being given priority.
The flaw in Pascal’s wager is that it assumes the choice is between no god and the god whereas in fact people have worshipped thousands of very different gods.
@Jimmy Wallace: Of course, there would never have been a whipping dished out in a non denominational Educate Together school in 1810..
Fr Mike Schmitz Bible in a year podcast is excellent if you actually want to know what the Catholic Church is about. His enthusiasm is amazing. There are very good genuine priests out there.
You can see what is happening in Ireland without religion, Ireland is a far more dangerous country now than it ever was. Evil is everywhere in the world these days. Wars, famine, lack of genuine care for other people and we worry that our children’s right to be a cat or use their correct pronoun (great American export) is respected really the world is upside down.
Religion is the only thing that is holding things together without that society falls. Wait and see how far
The Catholic Church has so much history to be proud of including:
Rodrigo Borgia.
The Spanish Inquisition.
The Crusades.
Altar boys.
@: Interesting angle. So the middle east isn’t crumbling as a direct result of religion, it’s being ‘heald together’? lol, sure
Be careful what you wish for.
I regret not sending my kids to a catholic school.
For one, expect your young kids to come home crying because their classmates are telling them the big fella doesn’t exist. No celebration of Christmas I.e parties or decorations and learn about Eid day during the run up to Christmas.
No facilitation of the communion but celebrations on other peoples holy celebrations like they are overcompensating them.
Just my opinion. School memories we all cherish are non existent.
@James Smith: forced through catholic school, suspended for wearing the wrong uniform to mass etc your children are blessed nobody looks back at old priests and thinks those was the best days of my life you weirdo
@Martin Mongan: national schools have a strict dress code. It’s the educate together don’t wear uniforms. I think you are confused.
@James Smith: Aw you’re getting old. It’s sad, we’ll have to deal with it, just let it go, change is inevitable. Celebrate Christmas if you like, that time of year it’s not exclusive to anyone. Personally, I feel the pagans had the best and most obvious interpretation, probs we’d be in a different place if we believed in tangible things that we witness every day instead of a better place to come after we’ve ruined this one.
I had to baptise my kids to get them into a decent school. I really regret it now. This needs to end. Nothing ever gets done about anything in Ireland. Whatacrockoshite
@lastfewchocices:
That makes you a bit of a hypocrite then. You got your child baptised as you saw a school with religious ethos as “decent”.
It’s open season when it comes to Catholicism, but The Journal is widely known for its bigotry
@Mary Toilet: if you’s could keep your hands off kids for 5 minutes your imaginary friend might be taken seriously
@Martin Mongan: Likewise with the alphabet brigade.
@Mary Toilet: Mary Mary, I’m I to believe you’re previous excellent trolling doesn’t apply to your precious beliefs? You have fallen in my esteem, as have a few others. (yes it should make you feel embarrassed)
Although they were by no means perfect there were two really good principals of human virtue taught at my catholic school that I remember very well.
Thou shalt not steal.
Thou shalt not kill.
Our government might do well to remember these when they are pushed into supporting the ongoing American Israeli terror attacks on civilians in Gaza.
@Dissasociated Follower: I’d imagine not killing and not stealing would be promoted by any school.
School should be a place of academic learning not political brigade experiments
Let the Catholic bashing begin
No church of any religion or denomination should be running schools and the only kind of religious teaching in schooling should be comparative religion with no opting out and coverage of all major and many minor religions.
School should be education not indoctrination.
If a religion cannot stand that then it is not faith but brainwashing.
Teach religion at home or in the church maybe even faith based Sunday school. Religion should have no part in the regular education of our youth.
That’s 65% census figure is likely very inflated, people were directed to just tick the box if you were baptised catholic. I wonder how many of us are actually practicing Catholics who go to mass every week, follow the teachings of the bible etc?
@Jimmy Wallace: but be prepared when your kids come home crying when they are told there is no Santa. Terrible
@Jimmy Wallace:
Hold on a minute… Your comments make it obvious that you are an atheist and very anti RC Church yet you still celebrate Christmas ? What way does that work ? Christmas is a Christian celebration! Sorry for pointing out the very obvious and probably making you feel a bit silly but what gives ? Are you a Christian when it suits ?
As far as I’m concerned, every school that gets money from the taxpayer should be a non-religious school, full stop. No association with ANY church. I also think the state should seize every school owned by a church and make them secular.
In school, kids should learn math, science, language, history, basic life skills… religion should only be taught in church, never alongside other things.
@Todd Hebert: you mean, as happened in most developed countries in the past century? You get my vote!
My heart bleeds for them
Let’s face it, too many use their god’s name (whichever of the 3800 odd gods in just recorded history alone you might choose or have chosen for you) for the most abhorrent evils!!
@Chutes: Better than believing theres more than two genders.
79 at last count crazy
@: To believe something is to not fully know it
Are you trying to say that worldwide abuse of millions of kids is better that believing that there is more than 2 genders? If so there’s something wrong with you.
Seize their assets to pay for their crimes. simple.
It’s enlightening to see all the fine representatives of their religion spout such ignorant bile on here, stings from dying wasps!
@Chutes:
The church was there before you and has survived numerous attacks over the centuries. I don’t think a small group of attention seeking kids with an internet connection will bother them too much ! They’ll be here long after you are gone…
@Regular John: No doubt, there will always be those too afraid of existence, that will need the crutches of everlasting life. Don’t be scared of the unknown.
@Regular John: Which is a crime in itself. The Catholic church should be forced to dissolve and every priest and nun pay for their crimes. Even if they haven’t partaken in criminality they have enabled some of the worst crimes that any organisation has inflicted on children worldwide.
@Plastic Paddy:
I agree but I don’t believe every single priest should be punished. The vast majority didn’t commit any crime or enable anything, most are good people.
But by all means, chase down the kiddie fiddlers and hang them if they are found guilty.
If the Catholic church was a multinational cooperation they would’ve been kicked out of Ireland years ago. They are criminals that shouldn’t have any say in how education should be taught and not one of them have any right to be near a child.
have your say