Papal Candidates Range from Inclusive Progressive to Conservative

PRAY WITH US about papal candidates: Father God, we proclaim You as the one Father of the heavenly lights. For You do not change like shifting shadows. And we proclaim Your Son Jesus as head of the universal church. But we honor fathers in the Catholic faith who went before us. And we recognize how crucial the next pope can be for the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics and all influenced by them.

So we pray for You to elevate Your choice of pope above the odds. For we need leaders who love You, hear You and serve You for our sake. When You faced the seven sons of Jesse, You had Samuel choose the most unlikely one because he had a heart after You. So move among the cardinals to make that one candidate known. Let the one who has favor with You have favor with men. And guide his course through every issue as he guides his worldwide flock. We exalt You as Chief Shepherd establishes authorities according to Your good will for us. In Jesus’ name, amen.

PRAYER ALERT: Papal Candidates Range from Inclusive Progressive to Conservative

Belizean Catholics—40% of our population—join 1 billion Catholics awaiting word on the next pope. Pope Francis himself chose most of the cardinals who have the right to vote on his successor. But Notre Dame theologist Ulrich Lehner says his governing style made their vote unpredictable. He made “unilateral decisions…without consultation with the College of Cardinals.”

The cardinals will vote on each candidate by secret ballots in the Sistine Chapel. If a vote does not carry a 2/3 majority, the ballots will go up the chimney in black smoke. So the voting may go through several rounds. Then when white smoke appears, it means the Catholics have a new pope.

A recent Fox article calls the Africa’s Robert Sarah, 79, of Guinea “a favorite among conservatives.” In 2019 he wrote “The Day is Now Far Spent.” There he criticizes the turning of the West against Christianity. Will it take a non-Western African pope like him to help get the West back on course?

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Photo: Cardinal Robert Sarah, cropped, by François-Régis Salefran, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons