When the cardinals gather behind locked doors within the Sistine Chapel for the key process to pick out Pope Francis’s successor, it’s going to be a ballot unlike every other. Never before will so many cardinals have come from so many countries across the globe.
Once, the College of Cardinals was dominated by Italians specifically, and Europeans basically. But through the years, increasingly more have been appointed to what the Catholic Church calls the “red hat” – after a cardinal’s summer sombrero – from the far corners of the earth. For example, Pope Francis appointed representatives from East Timor, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Papua New Guinea and Mongolia, all of whom will now help to elect his successor.
But there may be a method by which the present College of Cardinals – the body made up of 252 cardinals, 135 of that are eligible to vote within the conclave, 108 of which were appointed by Pope Francis – is exclusive: it includes 4 cardinals representing England and Wales. Never before has this country had quite so many.
In some ways, that is surprising. The Vatican has an extended memory, and the English Reformation, when Henry VIII broke away from the Catholic Church and founded his own Church of England because he was refused an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, still looms large. It has been 866 years because the last British pontiff.
I can remember a visit to Rome of the then-Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, when, at a dinner within the British embassy to the Holy See, the priest giving the after-dinner speech talked in regards to the love letters between Henry and Anne Boleyn, stolen by a Vatican spy and still kept within the Vatican archives now. Rome has not forgotten that amongst those executed by Henry for his or her fidelity to Rome was a cardinal, John Fisher. For nearly 300 years, no Roman Catholic cardinal was resident in England.
And then there have been Francis’s own Argentinian roots. Back home, he would have a good time mass for the souls of the Argentinian dead of the Falklands war – a sympathy that caused alarm bells to ring within the British Foreign Office when he was elected pope, and which sent the UK ambassador scurrying to the Vatican to verify the UK’s approach to what Francis, like all Argentinians, called the Malvinas.
But there have been other signs of improving relations with the UK: strong ecumenical ties with the Church of England, supported by Francis, and his message, soon after his election, given to cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, to present his good wishes to Elizabeth II, whom he invited to Rome. They met in 2014. He also met the then-Prince Charles on several occasions, including at 2019’s canonisation of the English cardinal, John Henry Newman.
Newman was certainly one of two English cardinals at the identical time within the late nineteenth century, but to have 4 is unprecedented.
The first will not be a surprise: Vincent Nichols, 79, follows an extended line of archbishops of Westminster appointed cardinal. Then there may be Arthur Roche, 74, the previous bishop of Leeds who now heads up a Vatican department called Divine Worship, which focuses on the liturgy.
Bestowing a red hat is a private gift of the pope: Francis gave one to Michael Fitzgerald, 87, for his work on inter-religious dialogue, and likewise to Dominican friar Timothy Radcliffe, 79, much loved by many Catholics for his spiritual writings and a frequent adviser to Francis.
As Nichols, Roche and Radcliffe are all under 80, they might find themselves talked up in conclave and within the running for the highest job itself – and while none are currently considered favourites for the role, stranger things have happened through the democratic process that goes through multiple rounds of discussions and voting. Certainly, they are going to each have ballots to solid, and can bring to the method their experience of how Catholicism fares in contemporary Britain; a rustic increasingly secular yet also religiously diverse – something that fascinates the Vatican.
Although Fitzgerald is just too old to vote, an elderly cardinal can play a hugely influential role, too. They can take part in the final congregations – the conversations cardinals have upfront of the conclave – and other events.
At the last conclave in 2013, Murphy-O’Connor, 85, proved to be quite a kingmaker, not only through those congregations but through the British embassy. A reception brought together cardinals from across the Commonwealth, where they were addressed by Murphy-O’Connor, who little doubt told all of them about his old friend, cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires. Just just a few days later, Bergoglio was elected, taking Francis as his papal name.
Murphy-O’Connor’s behind-the-scenes mastery of Vatican politics is a lesson for the English quartet of red hats this time round, they usually definitely have an enormous amount of experience to bear, not only of the Catholic Church in Britain, but in how the Vatican operates. As a member of several committees, Nichols is a frequent visitor to Rome, Roche has been based there for 12 years, and Fitzgerald ran a department on interfaith for years before serving as a Vatican diplomat in Cairo, Egypt.
Radcliffe was once based there when he was master of the worldwide Dominican order and proved through the Synods held in the previous couple of years, where he gave reflections, that he has an uncanny knack for unpicking knotty problems and bringing people together. That’s a fantastic talent during a conclave – nevertheless it would stand someone in good stead, should in addition they be elected Pope.
