Peace and the Soul of the Conclave

As the Conclave approaches, remember that Bld Pope Pius IX, the Hammer of Heretics, was considered a liberal when he was elected.

From Crisis

By Kennedy Hall

The 24-hour news cycle was initiated by CNN’s move to a “continuous coverage” format. Social media has added fuel to that sensationalist fire and it is destroying our peace.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I really hate modernity. I know, I know, not everything was better in the past. For one, I am very grateful for things like indoor plumbing and refrigeration, and I am well aware that men have been sinners from the get-go, and therefore every age has its drama and iniquity to deal with. But there is one thing about our modern age that is especially repugnant in so many ways, and that is our immediate access to information on a global scale.

Now, I fully understand the irony or even the hypocrisy of lamenting the state of our information age, considering I make my living as a writer and podcaster dependent on the tools of our age. Nevertheless, the state of the modern info-obsession presents a grave danger for our souls. Until very recently, historically speaking, human beings lived without the reasonable expectation of receiving information about civil or political affairs quickly, especially if a great distance was between them and wherever an important event was taking place.

This meant that worrying about what might be happening in a hall of government or a hall of Church government was likely the furthest thing from one’s mind. Sure, there could be a general sense of expectation or unease when word of strife or change reached a village or city, but the idea that someone could refresh his homepage or app for the latest “breaking” story or update was nonexistent. Even throughout great calamities, whether they be natural or the direct result of sinful men, Catholics could only “live in the moment” and persist without assurance or insight into what was to come.

In a sense, we will live without any such insight or assurance; but we seem to be under the illusion that the opposite is true. You see, the future, which will not be actualized until it becomes present, is still as uncertain and unpredictable as it was for a medieval peasant; but I think we are, generally speaking, extremely deficient in our ability to live with uncertainty. Our constant recourse to opinions and predictions by commentators in the ecclesial and lay sphere have made us more anxious than our ancestors who had less access to information than we do. Perhaps it is our false sense of certainty, derived from endless hypothesizing and theorizing about future events, that sets us up for failure when what we believe will happen does not, in fact, happen.

In my own case, the last few years of civil affairs in my nation have been a source of great anxiety for so many. Canadian politicians were very cruel and stupid during the “pandemic.” And our recent election cycle, which resulted in another Liberal victory, also presented an undulation of hope, fear, and despair for the masses. Throughout these tumultuous times, commentators on both the Left and the Right of the political spectrum prophesied the end of the world and the salvation of the world, both using the same facts or lies and presenting them in different ways or with different intentions.

The Leftists told us during Covid that if we did not all get vaccinated, we would all die or murder everyone else—even though they were vaccinated. And, during the recent election, they told us that our country would be invaded by Donald Trump if we didn’t vote Liberal. As an aside, Trump’s continual “51st state” comments gave the Liberals an effective campaign tool.
On the other side of the aisle, conservatives told us the opposite things. Both sides used statistics to make projections to “assure” us that what they believed would happen would, in fact, happen. Both of them have been wrong most of the time, and some of the time they have been right.

In all cases, no one has achieved any peace of soul by listening to them. And no one’s life has been made any better. On the contrary, people have become more resentful, spiteful, and unhappy with the current state of affairs.

In the Church, we have also succumbed to this trap. The death of Pope Francis and the impending conclave only exacerbate things. On the one hand, it is perhaps good to be informed about who may become pope. Yet, on the other hand, there is nothing we can do about it, so all the worry seems unfruitful. 

Granted, it is helpful to know about the candidates so that we might know what to expect when the next Holy Father stands on the loggia, but we also won’t really know what to expect in any concrete manner regardless of who is elected. The history of papal elections is filled with surprises, and plenty of men have been elected after scheming and plotting by bad actors, only to govern in ways completely opposite to expectations. Furthermore, men die unexpectedly, and calamities and scandals happen all the time. Simply put, we have no idea what will happen, and we never will in any concrete way. 

The electors will elect a pope, and he may be great, good, bad, awful, or a combination thereof, and the time we spend worrying about it will not help us save our souls.

If the next pope does something good, then we ought to rejoice. And if he does something bad, then we ought to resist within our capacity. That is all we can do.

Sometimes, in life, there are things we can do to change outcomes. But this is not one of those times. In fact, in the truest sense, all we can do is pray. So, we ought to do that fervently until further notice.