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Dear Father Angelo,

I always carefully read the arguments and your answers to the several questions in the website and I enjoy them very much.

I would like to ask you about a subject which may not be prominent, yet it is important to me.

In the Conclave for the election of the Pope, is it not the Holy Spirit that acts through mysterious ways to guide towards the election of the Cardinal wanted by God at the head of the Church?

I am asking you this because I thought it was like that but then I came across an interview given by Ratzinger where he said there may be cases where the Spirit is not welcomed and does not act.

But then how is this reconcilable with Venerable Luciani’s statement when in August 1978 he said the exact opposite? He said “Once again God’s choice for “the one who has already been anointed by God” will occur during the election and, as Jesus said to the apostles, “it was not you who chose me, but I who chose you[1]”.

If a Pope, not wanted by God, was elected, would this not invalidate the primacy of Saint Peter?

Thanks.

I send you my best regards,

Luca

Dear Luca,

1.     “Already anointed by God” can refer to the one that God wants to be elected or the one God let us elect. In the latter case, we have to be sure that this permission is given with a view of a greater good.

2.     Meanwhile, it must be said from the start that none of us can say in an apodictic form whether a particular person was wanted or allowed as Pope by God. We just accept every Pope from the hands of the Lord.

3.     We do not have to be surprised by the various elections. History has offered us a very wide range of them.

The Lord handed over the Church to men, well knowing that these could have been mistaken and influenced for the election by their character or personal interests.

4.     As long as the Church is on this earth, it will always be the field Jesus talks about in the Gospel, where the good wheat is sown together with weeds.

His children are not all saints but on the way towards perfection. Inside there are many weak and ill individuals. Sometimes degenerate and evil too.

In certain respects, the Church is the living image of Jesus that takes upon itself the weaknesses, infirmities and human sins.

5.     However, we are sure of one thing a priori: Christ never abandons his Church to faults.

We have to be equally certain of his fidelity to the mandate entrusted to Peter, when he said: “you must strengthen your brothers” (Luke 22:32).

As he prayed for Peter (“I have prayed that your own faith may not fail” Luke 22:32), so now He prays from Heaven for his successors and prevents the gates of hell from prevailing over his Church[2].

6.     At the Last Supper Jesus guaranteed that the Church would enjoy assistance of the Holy Spirit. He also called him “the Spirit of Truth” (John 14:17).

Jesus guaranteed the presence of the Holy Spirit in every time of history: “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always” (John 14:16).

Jesus had at heart that the apostles would not forget this supernatural and divine guarantee, indeed he wanted to remind it also at the time of his definitive departure from this world on Ascension Day: “And (behold) I am sending the promise of my Father upon you” (Luke 24,49).

At the Last Supper he prayed like this: “As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world; and I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth (John 17:18-19).

Therefore, Jesus committed himself to support the Magisterium so that He would never err.

This is of perennial comfort to us and the question, whether the primacy of the Pope may be invalidated, if the elected is not the one wanted by Heaven but only allowed, loses its meaning.

I remind you to the Lord and bless you.

Father Angelo 

Translated by Irene Visciano

 

 

[1] John 15:16.

[2] Matthew 16:18: “the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it”.