Pope Watch 2025

[Josephus]

Can't say I remembered the movie.
Besides, Oscars are hardly an argument these days.

This is how a a pre-conclave could (not should ?) like :

FB video link
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/16HX7MhZ2L/

It's on streamers. Amazon Prime has it for free. Well worth it. Based on a book by Robert Harris.

And there very well may be a cardinal in Kabul.....

[Tamas]

Elect an African pope, get MAGA people in America raise up again the old anti-Catholic fever, detach latino voters from Republicans.

[Syt]

Based on a book by Robert Harris.

Does it have Xaver März in it?

[Duque de Bragança]

It's on streamers. Amazon Prime has it for free. Well worth it. Based on a book by Robert Harris.

And there very well may be a cardinal in Kabul.....

Yeah, but you need to pay for Amazon Prime France, assuming Bezos France has it. Other streamers offering it are not free over here, as well.

[Caliga]

It's too bad that Jewish guy from France who was Papabile circa 2005 or so isn't around any longer.  A Jewish pope would kick ass!

[Valmy]

Just don't want a Maga friendly reactionary Pope.

Please Catholic Jesus deliver us

[HisMajestyBOB]

Just don't want a Maga friendly reactionary Pope.

Please Catholic Jesus deliver us

Pope JD Vance.

[Duque de Bragança]

Just don't want a Maga friendly reactionary Pope.

Please Catholic Jesus deliver us

Pope JD Vance.

At least with a Damien antichrist pope someone on Languish would feel vindicated. 

[Crazy_Ivan80]

Just don't want a Maga friendly reactionary Pope.

Please Catholic Jesus deliver us

Pope JD Vance.

Sounds like a sucky dj

[Valmy]

Just don't want a Maga friendly reactionary Pope.

Please Catholic Jesus deliver us

Pope JD Vance.

Yeah. That might as well happen.

[Sheilbh]

I don't think they are voting in anyone under the age of 70.

Peter Erdo - 72

Marc Ouellet at 80 could satisfy the global south for a couple of years while their good candidates age a little more.

I agree - but I very much doubt they'd go for one over 80 either. Ouellet probably had his chance in 2013. And with Francis they elected a 77 year old with one and a half lungs so probably didn't expect him to actually do much

FWIW - and this would have been my guess in 2013 too so I know nothing (and no-one does) - I suspect they'll want an Italian. it's been almost 50 years of foreign popes, I think there might be a sense that it's time to give Rome an Italian bishop again. I agree I don't think they'll want someone too young (or too old) - I don't think they want another JPII.

On a purely aesthetic level I think they want an accessories pope (and, why not). It has been noted semi-jokingly how the cardinals all immediately got out the fancy vestments and cracked out the golden pectoral crosses which we haven't seen since Benedict's pontificate - maybe not fully someone wanting to crack out the red Pradas, but definitely a bit more of a fancy pope.

Hopefully the Papacy leads the way in learning from Trump and not going for a far right nut as has been long expected.

The Pope will continue to be Catholic - like JPII and Benedict and Francis they wlll oppose abortion in all circumstances, there will not be women priests, homosexuality will be a sin. This stuff is not going to change (never say never - but certainly not in my lifetime). At the same time they'll almost certainly have robust things to say (as JPII, Benedict and especially Francis did) on the environment, against neo-liberalism (and indeed, original flavour liberalism), for migrants and the marginalised.

As my favourite Catholic writer put it the Catholic Church is about nine times older than the left-right divide. Even including that, there's about twenty different axes the cardinals can be plotted against and three of those are specifically about being Italian

Watch Conclave - its really quite a good movie.  Won the Oscar for best screen play and I think well deserved.

It's mad but it is very fun and really beautiful (any film set in the Vatican has a cheat code for cinematography) - I enjoyed it a lot. Also fantastic sound design.

Conclave's getting all the attention for obvious reasons but on recent papal films I also think the Two Popes is pretty good. A lot of the other stuff I could do without but just the scenes of Anthony Hopkins as Benedict and Jonathan Pryce as Francis are fantastic.

Although on Conclave stuff - absolutely love that Cardinal Becciu, dismissed from his curial offices by Francis, then arrested, charged and convicted (by a Vatican court) of embezzlenment and other financial crimes has insisted on his right to vote. I believe he's in prison and insists he's the victim of a Curia conspiracy. But apparently Pope Francis left a letter with the Secretary of State banning him from attending the conclave. Which is very Cardinal Lawrence and a nun with photocopier.

It's too bad that Jewish guy from France who was Papabile circa 2005 or so isn't around any longer.  A Jewish pope would kick ass!

The last Pope who was probably of Jewish descent was St Gregory VII (from a prominent Roman family that converted). Given that he led the papal revolution, was the "terror of princes", instituted the imperial papacy and deposed an Emperor they're probably going to hold off

Just don't want a Maga friendly reactionary Pope.

I think 99% of the MAGA or not is to do with internal politics of the American Catholic right. Whoever the Pope is doesn't actually matter - whoever it is there'll be some negative polarisation of them as a MAGA/not MAGA pope which may or may not be connected to reality and may or may not change over time.

Flagged by Matt Sitman but in 2016 the common criticism of the American Catholic right (Ross Douthat, George Weigel, First Things) was that Pope Francis basically was Donald Trump - they were both populist, personalist, disrespectful of traditions, institutions and their predcessors etc. It said more about their reaction to the 2016 primaries than Pope Francis. In 2020 you've got some with the same line and others including the mad Archbishop Vigano at Stop the Steal seeing Francis as part of a globalist cabal. None of this has anything to do with Francis or the Catholic Church it's just the American Catholic right's pathologies, neuroticisms and routes to money-making. It will reveal more about hem than anything about the Pope.

[Valmy]

I forgot how surreal it is for all the international news agencies to be live streaming a chimney for hours on end.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

I forgot how surreal it is for all the international news agencies to be live streaming a chimney for hours on end.

And yet it's probably the 3rd time in our lives they're focused on it

[Duque de Bragança]

I forgot how surreal it is for all the international news agencies to be live streaming a chimney for hours on end.

And yet it's probably the 3rd time in our lives they're focused on it

Maybe 4th; John Paul I did not last long.

[Savonarola]

I forgot how surreal it is for all the international news agencies to be live streaming a chimney for hours on end.

I don't think that's surreal, unless the chimney is also a sea urchin.  It sounds more like a Warhol film instead.