Even before Pope Francis was buried in the Roman Cathedral on Saturday, the conservative cardinals, who felt that his Pope was a divisive disaster that put the church tradition at stake, began to shake up Conclave, who elected the next Pope.
They have a fascinatingly simple slogan: unity.
It is hard to imagine a less aggressive rallying cry, but in the ears of Francis' most devoted supporters, it rings as a codeword to roll back Francis's more inclusive vision of Roman Catholic Church.
The concern is a clear indication of ideological camp maneuvering already occurring during the cardinal as it replaces the looming task of voting for Francis' successor at Conclave, which is expected to begin in the first week of May.
The debate leading up to the election could touch on whether Francis' successor should move forward, roll back, appointing women who may become obsessed as deacons, creating a clergy for married men, or offering communion with divorced and remarried Catholics in other deeply contested issues.
Already, the Cards have gathered at daily meetings behind the walls of the Vatican. Last week, after one of such conservative cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller of Germany, one conservative cardinal, in a study backed by his book, he kicked off the sandals he was wearing in black socks, and he spent the morning creating a unified incident.
Cardinals “need to look for church unity,” said Cardinal Muller, who was forced out of the doctrinal position of the church in 2017. “We need to talk about the division of the church today,” he said.
Some progressive people in the church are worried that dozens of new Cardinals Francis have chosen around the world are less familiar with the Vatican, and may be incorporated into the sweetness of united sirens.
“It sounds really good,” said Cardinal of Canada, one of Francis' closest advisors, “meaning a reversal.” For those who opposed Francis, many of them mean unity appointed by his predecessor, Benedict XVI.
“When you ask me, 'How do you name the wrong track on Conclave?” said Czerny Cardinal, who led the office to promote integrated human development under Francis. “Unity cannot become a matter of priorities.”
The two cardiacs sit on the opposite side of the ideological disparity. People like Czerny Cardinal take precedence over another term: diversity.
“They are two keywords: diversity and unity, and there's a lot to the balance between them,” said Pastor Antonio Spadaro, under the secretary of the Vatican Department of Culture and Education, near Francis.
He believes, like Francis, the future of the church is diversity. Francis chose dozens of new cardiacs, shaped outside of Rome, empowering the local church. Father Spadaro said the tricks avoided “freezing the church” in order to maintain unity.
“Francis maintained this very delicate balance and moved the church forward,” he said. The next Pope said, “We need to keep the two together.”
And that's why, Cardinal Muller said, “We have to talk now.”
That's not a new theme for conservatives. The church will be seriously weakened, Guinea's deep, conservative Cardinal Robert Sarah said at Kenya's 2024 symposium “if we don't try to unite.”
During Francis' bishop, Cardinal Sarah emerged as a central critic, and Francis stripped him of his official influence on the liturgy of the Church. “Introducing ruptures and revolutions will destroy the unity that governs the holy church of age,” Cardinal said in 2019.
But unity was central to Francis' vision for the church. He saw it differently. In 2021, Francis suppressed the celebration of the Latin Mass, worshiped by Cardinal Sarah and other traditionalists. Because he argued that it was used by ideologically motivated Catholics to undermine church unity.
That decision only encouraged Francis' conservative criticism as an authoritarian. “That's his style and it's going to be split,” Cardinal Muller said Thursday in his apartment. “All dictators are split.”
When Francis entered the late stages of his Pope, his progressive supporters expected him to make concrete changes. Instead, concerns about church unity seemed to encourage him to punt.
When bishops from remote South America came to the Vatican in 2019 for the major conference that Francis wanted, they recommended that the Pope allow older Catholic men to become priests to deal with the shortage of clergy.
Francis gave every indication that this practical solution was what he wanted, but around that time Cardinal Sarah co-authored a book in which retired Benedict reaffirmed his priest's singles.
The Pope said that the issue “is ideologically polarized and can divide the church,” and that he needs more time to think about it, Father Spadaro said. He said Francis was not influenced by Benedict, but conservatives insisted victory over unity.
Francis allowed a lengthy taboo discussion on other issues that could divide the church, such as whether women would be allowed to be ordained as deacons and ministerial roles, but ultimately he did not make a decision. The united crowd sighed once more in relief.
And when Francis made a major change that allowed and further encouraged the blessing of same-sex couple priests, he was praised by liberals in Europe and North America. But the great expression of opposition from church leaders in Africa, a place that many consider to be the future of their faith, forced him to turn it over. To unity, Francis exempts Africans for unspecified times to participate in the program, essentially allowing them to opt out.
Father Spadaro argued that African carve-outs were “a more revolutionary gesture” than measured by actual gay blessings as “legalizing idyllic plurals.” He said that within a unified church, it was Francis' way of recognizing cultural diversity and differences.
Meanwhile, Cardinal Muller thought up the controversy and the effort to distract Francis from the distraction of bringing together bishops and amateurs to make decisions, defending the doctrine of the Church, and revealing the truth of revealing the truth to the world without considering popularity contests and politics.
“This agenda with blessings such as gays, and women's priesthood women,” he said, “they are not a big question for humanity.”
Unity is also important for the other cardinals who vote for the Conclave, but that means something different.
In the case of Cardinal Lazarus, Heungsik, the Korean who led the Vatican division in charge of clergy, unity “means opening up to me,” he said. He said that Francis “telled me that I have to open my heart to love others.”
And after one of each of the general meetings this week, Cardinal Claudio Gguelotti, who served under Francis as governor of the Eastern Church office, said it was too early to discuss the actual issue. “We have to decide what to put on the table.
Cardinal Gugerotti is an Italian who is sometimes referred to as Francis' successor or as the kingmaker of Conclaves, “the lack of unity is always a disaster.”
But he said, “it doesn't mean that everyone has to say the same thing.” He added: “There could be a difference. It's not the opposite, because it's destructive.”
