The Next Pope

From the April 22d issue of COMMONWEAL, by Catholic Theologian Richard Gaillardetz:

MY HOPE FOR THE NEXT POPE

Richard R. Gaillardetz    

The death of Pope John Paul II has unleashed an outpouring of grief and gratitude for a man who may well have been the most widely recognizable human being of our time. This pope’s virtually unparalleled charisma and productivity and the length of his reign will likely rank his pontificate among the most influential in church history. Studies on the contributions of Pope John Paul II and his impact on the church will engage theologians and church historians for decades to come.

In the midst of this widespread mourning it is inevitable that the world will also be looking to the future. By the time this article appears we may already have a new pope. Over the weeks and months ahead there will be much discussion regarding items that ought to appear on a new papal agenda. Many will hope for a spiritual clone of John Paul II, a pope who will continue to encourage a robust and evangelical Catholicism capable of confronting the insidious relativism of our age. Others will wish for a pope with the courage to change Catholic teachings they find troubling. We will surely hear more, as we probably should, about issues that still rankle the church politic (at least in North America): women’s ordination, mandatory priestly celibacy, and homosexuality.

I harbor my own “wish list” for our new pope. Yet perhaps our hopes and prayers ought to leave more room for the work of the Spirit and focus less on issues and more on papal vision. For my part, I shall be content to pray that our new pope might allow two insights affirmed throughout the documents of Vatican II to inform his vision for the church: First, the Word of God is addressed to the whole church. And second, living in history as a faithful follower of Jesus requires an eschatological humility.

. . .

This is no liberal fantasy for a democratic church, but a quite traditional longing for a genuine community of discernment that dares to introduce its decisions as did the church of Jerusalem: “It is the decision of the Holy Spirit and of us...” (Acts 15). It is a longing for a church that raises up leaders who recognize that leading and listening are not mutually exclusive.

. . .  I hope for a pope who has a healthy dose of eschatological humility. Eschatological humility treasures divine truth as it is mediated through the received faith of the church but also recognizes that we do not so much possess divine truth as it possesses us. The revelation of God’s love comes to us first, not in doctrinal formulae, but as a person, Jesus Christ, who is for us “both the mediator and the sum total of revelation” (Dei verbum, 2). As the council taught, the church is “always advancing toward the plenitude of divine truth” (Dei verbum, 8). A pope with eschatological humility would know that in the final consummation of all things in God, our confident dogmatic assertions will be seen, not as erroneous, but as inevitably impoverished before that ineffable mystery that is God. Such a pope would not hesitate to give testimony before the world to the truth so treasured by followers of Jesus, but he would readily acknowledge that although the church is “guardian of the deposit of God’s word, and draws religious and moral principles from it...it does not always have a ready answer to every question” (Gaudium et spes, 23).

Eschatological humility comes with understanding as well what it means to belong to, and to lead, a church that is pilgrim-a church that is confident it has set upon the right path and wishes to share that way with others but that knows it has not yet arrived (Lumen gentium, 48). A pope with eschatological humility would know that this pilgrim church need never fear reform and renewal, for it is only by reform and renewal that the church will hobble forward on its journey (Unitatis redintegratio, 6).

Let us pray for a pope who believes that God’s Spirit abides in the church as in a temple and speaks in and through that church’s corporate discernment. Let us pray for a pope who speaks with a conviction chastened by the modesty befitting a pilgrim. Such a pope would truly merit the ancient title, servus servorum Dei, “servant of the servants of God.”

[To read the whole piece, click here.]