The Conclave as an Event of Faith
The first event in the history of elections to Church office was the introduction of Matthias to the College of the Twelve Apostles. For it was the will of the Lord Jesus that the people of the New Covenant should grow out of His twelve disciples, just as the people of the First Covenant had their origin in the twelve sons of Jacob. After the resurrection of Jesus and His departure to the Father, it was necessary to choose someone to replace Judas, who had betrayed Jesus.
The choice was small as Peter explained " Therefore, it is necessary that one of the men who accompanied us the whole time the Lord Jesus came and went among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day on which he was taken up from us, become with us a witness to his resurrection". (Act 1:21-22)
This was the only election for the office of Apostle in the history of the Church, but they created the ideal atmosphere that should accompany all elections to Church offices: "All these devoted themselves with one accord to prayer, together with some women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers" - we read in Acts 1:14.
It is important to recognize that this is always the form of the calling to the office of deacon, priest, and bishop in the Church. After all, the ordination liturgy is a prayerful calling to the ecclesiastical office, taking place in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Matthias was elected to the office of Apostle even before the descent of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it was both the first and the last election to the ecclesiastical office that was made in the Church by lot, that is, by external entrustment to God's will. After Pentecost, the Holy Spirit became, as it were, the soul and the life of the Church, including calling to Ecclesiastical Ministries which can and should take place in His presence and under His guidance. Therefore, when the new successor of Peter is elected, his electors will have the right to say to us: " It is the decision of the holy Spirit and of us" (cf. Acts 15:28). However, we should all strive to make these words as true as possible.
After the funeral of Pope Francis, I referred to the apostolic constitution Universi Dominici Gregis by St. John Paul II, published in 1996, which comprehensively discusses issues related to the election of a new pope. Unsurprisingly, the legal matters connected with the conclave are treated very scrupulously there. After all, during voting, every cardinal says the following oath: 'I call Christ the Lord as a witness, who will judge me, that I give my vote to the one whom, in my opinion, God's will indicates.'
At the same time, the constant reminder to cardinals to pray during the conclave is very striking in the mentioned constitution. But not only to the cardinal electors. Following the example of these choices, which took place before the descent of the Holy Spirit – we read in this document – 'may the whole Church, spiritually united to Mary, the Mother of Jesus, remain with one accord in prayer.' In this way, the election of a new pope will be close to the people of God and, in a certain sense, an action of the whole Church, not only the electoral college.
The late Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, who participated in the elections for the Bishop of Rome in 2005 and 2013, recalled these elections as follows: "They are unlike any other elections. At this Conclave, nobody praised himself for what he could do; nobody presented a program; nobody spoke for anybody or against anybody. We just prayed. The whole Conclave had the character of a kind of liturgy – after all, it took place in a chapel and a very meaningful chapel, the Sistine Chapel. A huge fresco of the Last Judgement dominates it. We entered this conclave, singing the litany to all the saints, and then the hymn to the Holy Spirit, Veni Creator Spiritus. Then we had an ascetic conference. During these elections, there were breviary prayers."
It is certainly not the case that the prayerful atmosphere accompanying these elections makes cardinals inaccessible to various negative emotions, likes and dislikes, ambitions, and unnecessary fears. The Pope's electors are, like all of us, just people. However, we can guess that prayer helps to what is divine in us and makes it difficult for what is sinful to be revealed. It will undoubtedly be easier for the new successor of Peter, elected in such an atmosphere, to act in accordance with the heartfelt request that St. John Paul II left in the document mentioned above: "I also ask the one who is elected not to refuse, for fear of its weight, the office to which he has been called, but to submit humbly to the design of the divine will. God, who imposes the burden, will sustain him with his hand, so that he will be able to bear it. In conferring the heavy task upon him, God will also help him accomplish it, and in giving him dignity, he will grant him the strength not to be overwhelmed by the weight of his office".
fr. george