Time and Tide

By the time you read this, we will most probably have a new pope. This Sunday bulletin went to the printer on Wednesday morning PDT, not long after the cardinal electors processed into the Sistine Chapel for their first ballot. If recent history is any indicator, it’s likely to be a few days (plus or minus) before the 130 electors (plus or minus) come to a consensus. It’s been 200 years or so since a conclave took more than a week, and the all-time record was set in 1271 when Gregory X was elected after a conclave of 2 years and nine months, or 1,006 days. That fandango election led to the institution of the system now used, with the cardinals being sequestered until their work is done. Part of its design was intended to keep kings and potentates from influencing the election process, and its secrecy was designed to allow for freedom of conversation and prayerful listening.

As the cardinals moved into the Sistine Chapel, what we see in this present moment is a church awakening to its “small c catholic” character. Pope Francis, following and building upon the inspiration of Popes St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI, broadened the membership of the College of Cardinals to make it a much more representative body, international in its scope. The cardinals represent local churches large and small, in traditionally Catholic and vehemently non-Catholic countries. Almost half of cardinal electors- 61 to be exact- attended the recent Synods in 2023 and 2024. There they sat alongside, listened and conversed with clerics and lay men and women. Indeed, at the second session of the recent Synod 51 delegates were women. The Church inches forward, albeit always on uncertain seas.

My favorite image of the church comes from the occupation, the very craft of St. Peter himself. He was a sailor, a fisherman. His faith waivered when Jesus called him to walk on the waves, but the powerful hand of Christ lifted him back into the boat and put the tiller into his hand. Giotto captured this scene in a huge mosaic in the atrium of the old St. Peter’s, lost now but rendered in a painting (above) from around 1600. 

The church has been likened, appropriately, to a great flotilla of ships, large and small, fast and slow, some energetic, others sluggish, whose task it is to cross its passengers safely to the other side while fishing for souls along the way. Peter’s sea was the lake of Galilee, and eventually the Mediterranean, which he crossed on his way to martyrdom in Rome. Our new pope, whomever he is and wherever he comes from, will steer the barque and guide the fleet and the slow across all seven seas, keeping us together, listening for the voices on the wind and adapting to the tides, with ever an eye on the North Star and the Southern Cross as time and the journey requires. May he guide us, safely, home.

Blessings,

FR. TOM LUCAS