On the choosing of a new Pope

It's been a long time since I've blogged but the appointment of a new Pope and such an interesting one, compels to me to my keyboard again!

Given the fact that it had to be one of the cardinals in the conclave clearly meant that the world wasn't going to get either a woman, someone in a civil partnership or someone with such radical views that they would be selling the Sistine Chapel on eBay in a weeks time. Despite that, the choice of someone whose actual name is hard to recall unless you are a Spanish speaker and who will therefore very quickly be known only as Francis, seems an inspired choice. But it is a choice fraught with dangers!

The problem is that given his already well publicised history of living simply under a vow of poverty and his genuine 'preference for the poor', there will be those who will be disappointed not to find the Sistine Chapel on eBay and the money being used to finance projects to end poverty or develop work to offer real alternatives to the false god of 'The Market'. His known humility will also lead them to expect him to listen to those on the edge, especially those of the LGBT community and change both his previous thinking and the teaching of the church and when he does not, disappointment leading to disaffection will set in.

I say these things because I am one of those prone to react that way. Being an ecumenical diplomat means that often the things I really feel have to take second place to more considered responses and that can be frustrating because, after all and 'For God's Sake!' People are dying because we faff around and cannot tell the difference between form and content! We obsess over questions of conciliar versus personal episcopacy when it is clear that what Jesus concentrated on was the quality of the way that way people in leadership behave and should understand the risks of power. And so we hold each other at arms length and scrutinise each others' statements with a microscope in case we find something that is 'wrong' and cannot recognise organic unity when it is staring us in the face. And we obsess about this while the world screams out its need around us so please Francis do something sensible and really radical and get us all to really make a difference! Please!

Of course it's not as simple as that. There can be rapid cultural shifts caused by something such as social networking that causes almost overnight changes in the way we connect with one another with all kinds of as yet barely understood side effects but other changes inevitably take generations especially when they involve an appeal to higher motives. We take our time because we do not want to rush into damaging changes that may be irreversible not to mention the fact that to set aside something that we believe God has told us to do or say is remarkably difficult.

Nevertheless there is a potency in the very idea of a Pope called Francis and we live in the world of the butterfly effect where subtle things can make differences on the other side of the world or all over the world, that we never expected. If we cannot plan anything because of that, surely God can and may bring things into existence that we can only pray for.

So I will expect less than may be promised but pray for everything and wait to be surprised even in the midst of disappointments.

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