Papal conclaves have a history of surprises – is another one coming?
Pope Celestine V. From a painting by Niccolò di Tommaso. Photograph by Marie-Lan Nguyen via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain. Edited by The Christian Citizen.
Rev. Dr. Michael Woolf
If there’s one movie on everyone’s mind as they watch the news surrounding Pope Francis’ death and the solemn conclave that is preparing to meet to pick his successor, it is “Conclave.” Released in 2024, the movie follows the rituals of the conclave closely as the papabile (Italian for pope-able) maneuver to be named Peter’s successor.
Followers of the movie have watched with excitement as prominent rituals from the movie happened in real life, such as the sealing of the papal apartments after Pope Francis’ death. In the movie, there is plenty of intrigue to follow, but the film ends with the selection of a surprising outsider who brings a prophetic voice to the Church. The film is fiction of course, but it is rooted in reality.
One papal election in particular — responsible for establishing the very conclave system the Roman Catholic Church still uses today to encourage swift decision-making by keeping cardinal electors slightly uncomfortable — reveals the influence of prophetic outsiders in Church history and their surprising potential to ascend to the papacy. By all accounts, the papal election of 1292-1294 was contentious. With only 11 cardinals actively participating and all of them almost evenly divided between rival families, the cardinals spent over two years meeting and failing to reach a conclusion about the next pope. You could even say that the cardinals had figured out a life hack of sorts. In failing to elect a pope, they were all collectively acting as the leader of the church.
This did not escape the notice of one hermit who was considered the spiritual rock star of his age – Pietro Angelerio da Morrone. Well regarded as a living saint, he sent a letter to the gathered conclave that warned that a judgment from God was coming to the cardinals for failing their duties. Perhaps a bit fearful that the saintly hermit was telling the truth, the cardinals elected Pietro da Morrone as pope.
History shows us that plenty of surprises have happened in past papal elections. As we watch for the white smoke above the Vatican, let us pray that the next leader will have the wisdom and guidance necessary to lead the world’s largest group of Christians through the crises that will inevitably mark his pontificate.
It has been suggested that only an outsider to the papal politics that was commonplace at the time could have prevailed, and da Morrone became Pope Celestine V. It was not a happy pontificate, however, and Celestine resigned mere months into his election as pope, citing the fact that the duties of running the church had impeded his prayer life. Da Morrone simply wanted to go home, and so he laid down his office to return to his life as a hermit.
Because this had never been done before, it created a bit of a succession crisis in the Church. Imprisoned, da Morrone eventually died in 1296. He never got to go back to his life as a hermit. The unfortunate former hermit was canonized in 1313, but perhaps his most lasting legacy is his order that the conclave system be followed and the precedent that the Pope can resign, which Pope Benedict XVI famously did in 2013.
While plenty of people think they know who the next pope will be (interested parties can even bet on the next pontiff on a variety of websites), no one knows who the 133 cardinals will select when they are locked into the Vatican cum clave (Latin for “with key”) to elect the next leader of the Roman Catholic Church.
History shows us that plenty of surprises have happened in the past. Some of them, like the election of da Morrone, were disastrous, but the next pope will have to contend with a church deeply divided theologically. As we watch for the white smoke above the Vatican, let us pray that the next leader will have the wisdom and guidance necessary to lead the world’s largest group of Christians through the crises that will inevitably mark his pontificate.
Rev. Dr. Michael Woolf is senior minister, Lake Street Church of Evanston, Illinois. He currently serves as the co-associate regional minister with the American Baptist Churches Metro Chicago. His book, published in 2023 by T&T Clark, is titled “Sanctuary and Subjectivity: Thinking Theologically about Whiteness and Sanctuary Movements.” He is also the co-founder of Challenging Islamophobia Together Chicagoland, an initiative that brings together people of all faiths to counter Islamophobia from a religious perspective.
The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of American Baptist Home Mission Societies.
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