The tale of two popes?

When Pope Benedict XVI resigned in 2013 nobody could have imagined what has been happening since: the Roman Catholic Church has one reigning pope (Francis), but also a former yet-living pope (Benedict) who still speaks, acts, and intervenes in ecclesiastical matters.

There were hints that the prospect of having two living popes would cause some confusion, if not controversy. The fact that Benedict wanted to keep his title as Pope (only adding ‘Emeritus’ to it) as well as his white papal robe (a symbol of the papal office) and his residence inside of the Vatican walls (the home of popes), indicated that, in spite of his pledge to remain silent for the rest of his days, the cohabitation between two popes would easily result in misunderstandings, even conflicts.

The outcome has been an increasing polarisation between Francis’ fans over against Benedict’s supporters and vice versa, certainly beyond the intentions of both.

Roman popes, Catholic popes

Roman Catholicism is the ongoing tension between two fundamental aspects of the whole: the Roman side, with its emphasis on centralised authority, pyramidal structure, binding teaching and the rigidity of canon law; and the Catholic side, with its emphasis on the universal outlook, the absorption of ideas and cultures and the inclusive embrace of practices into the Catholic whole.

The resulting system is Roman Catholicism, at the same time Roman and Catholic. The human genius of Roman Catholicism and one of the reasons for its survival across the centuries has been its ability to be both.

Popes embody the Roman Catholic synthesis by holding together the Roman apparatus and the Catholic vision. Of course, they each do it differently. John Paul II, for example, was a very Roman pope but at the same time a very Catholic one. For example, he strongly defended traditional Roman Catholic teaching, but was second-to-none in promoting the universality of this Church around the world (e.g. inter-religious dialogue, travelling globally).

Unlike John Paul II, who was both Roman and Catholic, Benedict XVI made the pendulum swing over the Roman pole. With his staunch conservatism in areas such as liturgy, morality and the relationship with the secular world, Benedict appeared to be more Roman than Catholic. He seemed to be a rigid, centripetal, doctrinaire pope. A Roman pope.

With the election of Pope Francis, Rome seemed to be wanting the pendulum to move in the opposite direction in order to re-address the balance. Distancing himself from many Roman features of the office (e.g. his refusal of the pomp of the Vatican curia, his blurred teaching that leans away from official teachings), Francis has embodied the role of a very Catholic pope. Perhaps too Catholic and too little Roman for a growing number of Roman Catholics!

The present-day tension

With two very different popes living next to each other (with only one reigning, but the other still lucid and active), the situation is very different. For some, Francis has become too Catholic to maintain a proper Roman Catholic synthesis. He is incapable of being the Roman Catholic (at the same time) Pontifex. Therefore, he needs the correction of a Roman pope.

This tension at the highest level of the Roman Catholic Church is not tenable in the long run. This is why it is highly probable that the status of Pope Emeritus (the one which Benedict enjoys now) will be revisited and regulated in order to end the temptation to think of the papacy as a ‘dual’ responsibility, resulting in the ongoing confrontation of a Roman and a Catholic party.

Roman Catholicism accommodates different positions and tendencies, but the pope is thought of as being the one, living synthesiser of the tension, until the next one takes over and perhaps re-fixes the balance.

The tale of two popes will not last long because Roman Catholicism is built on the conviction that its system is capable of keeping together its unchangeable Roman identity and its ever-increasing Catholicity. No biblical reformation is in view; it is only an internal struggle that is causing Rome to go through a stress test and some chaos until the Roman and the Catholic dimensions find a new, sustainable equilibrium.