From "Inside the Vatican" NewsFlash

From the NewsFlash by Dr. Robert Moynihan, Editor, Inside the Vatican

What are the cardinals meditating on with regard to the upcoming election of a successor to Pope John Paul?

By good fortune, I was able to speak today with two cardinals, Lubomyr Husar and Achille Silvestrini. I spoke with Husar, head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, which celebrates the liturgy according to the Byzantine rite, but which is in union with Rome, at Rome's Fiumicino Airport, after we both had flown to Rome on the same flight from Philadelphia. (We chatted for 30 minutes as we waited for his suitcase to come through on the conveyor belt.)

Husar said the cardinals -- in his view -- are looking "for a man, not a program." He said the man they are looking for with be able to balance the claims of conflicting groups so that Church teaching does not get "out of balance." He used the words "synodality," "collegiality" and "communion" in his discussion of the need to find a way for the Petrine office to function which does not compromise the prerogatives of "Peter" but yet allows legitimate space for other bishops beside the Bishop of Rome, as themselves successors of the apostles, to exercise an authoritative doctrinal and jurisdictional role in the Church. He said no one now has the answer to that question.

I spoke to Silvestrini in the Vatican Press Office. Silvestrini, now past 80, will not vote in the conclave. He was once the Vatican's "foreign minister" and so one of the most influential and high-ranking of all curial officials. And he was quite direct: "The Church needs to find a way of governing which is more collegial. This is the key point."

I deduce from these two conversations that, among the very many issues of concern to Church leaders, ranging from issues of sexual morality to Third World debt, one issue that is on the "front burner" right now is summed up in this word "communio" or "communion." That is, how can the Church remain unified, while allowing legitimate variation and difference. Finding the balance point is an extremely delicate task, for too much allowance for "difference" could fracture "communion" altogether, while too much "uniformity" could be seen as an oppressive and stultifying "centralism." This is by no means the only issue on the cardinals' minds, but it is one issue, and a key one.

It is especially key because its solution could open the way for something nearly everyone in the Church desires, but few believe is possible: an end to the schism of 1054, the reunion of the Orthodox Churches with Rome.

It was John Paul's great hope that he would move much closer to this union than he did; it will now be his successor's task to complete.

More collegiality...based on many, many stories over the years, it seems that this has more problems than benefits. Recent history is replete with statements and practices by different bishops and cardinals which differ, in varying degrees, from the teachings and disciplines of the Church. Rather than enumerate the countless examples, perhaps, our Lord will find it beneficial for us to have a Pope and bishops who are united in teaching and practices with the result being less confusion among the faithful and a true unity of the Church. I fail to see how too much "uniformity" would be considered "oppressive".