The extraordinary scale of the crisis facing the next pope

[Michie]

At 9.47 a.m. on Easter Monday we heard the words ‘con profondo dolore’ from a cardinal standing in the chapel of the Casa Santa Marta. Two hours earlier, Pope Francis ‘è tornato alla casa del Padre’ – ‘had returned to the house of the Father’. Most people won’t have noticed a curious detail: the cardinal was speaking Italian with a pronounced Irish brogue.

The incoming pope will face challenges that dwarf those that confronted any in living memory

Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the papal ‘Camerlengo’, was born in a Dublin suburb. Or, as a tabloid put it: ‘Interim Pope is a bloke called Kevin from Dublin.’ That’s an exaggeration, but the Camerlengo does occupy centre stage when the See of Peter falls vacant. He confirms that the Pope is dead. Traditionally, he would tap his head with a silver hammer, but now they use an electrocardiogram. Cardinal Farrell sealed Francis’s apartment; he’s organising the funeral and conclave.

Not everyone is happy about this. Farrell, who has spent most of his career in the United States, is distrusted by many in the Church. He has been accused of lying about what he knew about the allegations against his friend, the recently deceased Theodore McCarrick. McCarrick was defrocked by Francis in 2019 after he was exposed as a serial predator of young men – an open secret in the Vatican and the American church for decades.

Continued below.

https://archive.md/2025.04.24-111648/https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-extraordinary-scale-of-the-crisis-facing-the-next-pope/

 

[chevyontheriver]

At 9.47 a.m. on Easter Monday we heard the words ‘con profondo dolore’ from a cardinal standing in the chapel of the Casa Santa Marta. Two hours earlier, Pope Francis ‘è tornato alla casa del Padre’ – ‘had returned to the house of the Father’. Most people won’t have noticed a curious detail: the cardinal was speaking Italian with a pronounced Irish brogue.

Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the papal ‘Camerlengo’, was born in a Dublin suburb. Or, as a tabloid put it: ‘Interim Pope is a bloke called Kevin from Dublin.’ That’s an exaggeration, but the Camerlengo does occupy centre stage when the See of Peter falls vacant. He confirms that the Pope is dead. Traditionally, he would tap his head with a silver hammer, but now they use an electrocardiogram. Cardinal Farrell sealed Francis’s apartment; he’s organising the funeral and conclave.

Not everyone is happy about this. Farrell, who has spent most of his career in the United States, is distrusted by many in the Church. He has been accused of lying about what he knew about the allegations against his friend, the recently deceased Theodore McCarrick. McCarrick was defrocked by Francis in 2019 after he was exposed as a serial predator of young men – an open secret in the Vatican and the American church for decades.

Continued below.

https://archive.md/2025.04.24-111648/https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-extraordinary-scale-of-the-crisis-facing-the-next-pope/

Damian gets it.

Last conclave ex-cardinal McCarrick served as a kingmaker, helping secure the election of pope Francis. This time around his ghost seems it will haunt the new conclave too. Cardinals Ferrell and Parolin have ties too close to the now dead McCarrick, but they aren't the only ones by a long shot.

One can hope and pray that this conclave will not be manipulated, as was the last one, by the nefarious ex-cardinal McCarrick. But since so many cardinals got to be cardinals because of kingmaker McCarrick and pope Francis made king by McCarrick, it will be a moment of astounding grace if it come out otherwise.

I guess we can pray. Not much else is going to have an effect.