The battle for the future of the Catholic Church will not be about doctrine

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Roula Khalaf, publisher of the FT, selects her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.

The writer is a biographer of Pope Francis and co -author “Let Us Dream: The Path to Better Future” with him

Today, the cardinals cry and bury Pope Francis. As they do, they will take a discreet look, asking -who will come next.

The nerves will have a forecast to choose the 266th successor of Saint Peter, but they will not be alone. The cardinals believe that their task is to distinguish the choice of God and to have the Holy Spirit to help them. That is why they must consider the state of the world and the Church, listen to it carefully and maintain an open mind and hearts. From Monday to the end of May, the contours of the nearby papacy will begin to appear, in daily discussions in the synod room and the informal meetings of the night where names will be launched. “I have heard good things about Cardinal X. What do you know?”

Like when you buy a property, it is something to make a list of ideal qualities and another to look at what is really in the market. No single cardinal can meet all expectations: options need to be made, which in turn reflect the priorities. It is here that the prospects vary. But Conclude Topical of a battle between blocks of “progressives” and blocks of “conservatives” who discuss ethical or doctrinal issues is perhaps the least useful way to frame these disagreements.

It was largely true once, when Europeans decided on the papal election. But the current Catholic Church is a universal and multi-polar institution made up of many “centers”, a fact that Francis, the first non-European pope in many centuries, sought to reflect in the diversity of its nominations.

The cardinals are currently from 94 different countries. It is true that Europe is still heavy with 53 voters, but its congregations are quickly reduced. Most Catholics these days are in America, which have 37 voters. But congregations grow faster in Asia and Africa, which have 23 and 18 voters respectively.

While the Western Church struggles to maintain its heavy legacy of real estate, southern continents lack the resources to build churches and schools quickly enough for an expanding herd. Cultural differences are now increasingly shaping the discussion of ethical questions, but this is not so much disagreement on the doctrine itself, how this doctrine is applied.

It is more useful to frame the differences between the cardinals in terms of how the Church evangelizes. How should the Gospel take to society to create a house for everything that best reflects what Jesus called “Kingdom of God”? This is what the church style can be called: its way of being, its culture, its mentality. And here some of the differences between the cardinals are deeply executed, as revealed in their answers to Francis’ time.

The reforms of the missing pope reflected his deep understanding of what the Church must do in what he called the “change of time” marked by the general expulsion of Christianity from law and culture. Francis deplored the “negative view” of the decrease in the social relevance of the Church, contrasting -what he called the “demanding vision”. The negative view, born of frustration by the loss of prestige, aims to recover or address what is attached. His criticism of secularization masks what Francis called a “nostalgia for a sacralized world, a past society in which the Church and its ministers had greater power and social importance.”

The demanding view, on the other hand, understands the dramatic changes of recent decades as a clash given by God that gives the Church the possibility of changing both its internal culture and its relationship with the world, in order to better perform what Francis called “the style of God”. Last year, he spoke of the need to embrace “minority Christianity or, better, a witness Christianity.” It is a testimony of mercy and joy, of humility and service, of simplicity and freedom, of a love that forgives, in which the Church, released from the attached files, can better reflect the way of relating to humanity and building a more fraternal world.

In the manner of the papacy, Francis gave us a masterclass in the style of God. He was a captivating gospel, a convincing, attractive and humble teacher, who was attentive to the complexity of people’s lives. He is not afraid of diversity, he let them all be “seen”, especially those whom society comes from. Great numbers in Rome this week are a test of their deep impact.

However, this style made many Church leaders uncomfortable, especially in the United States and Eastern Europe, where the Catholicism of the culture of war is still strong. Here Francis is accused of lowering the requirements of the doctrine and to compromise the clarity of the teaching of the Church. This critique reveals the idea to which some, but many, remain cardinals: an institution that moralizes in teaching, which requires loyalty, gives a cultural identity and seeks alliances of power.

But the world by which this institution was created has continued. The future of the Church is now, as in the first centuries, in its testimony from the bottom, in its ability to walk with the search engines and the seekers of this world. The struggle of the conclave of 2025 will not be on the doctrine, but if the decrease in institutional Christianity is considered as a call to return and bend, or to arouse -to the conversion that Francis embodied so powerfully.