Douthat: Cardinals should look for ‘dynamic orthodoxy’ in next pope

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 25, 2020 / 02:10 pm (CNA).- Catholic columnist Ross Douthat on Wednesday said that the eventual next conclave could produce a leader in the mould of St. John Paul II, and that expectations of a more retiring successor to the charismatic leadership of Francis may shift after months of global upheaval.

“I think the goal of the cardinals should be to find someone who embodies what you might call ‘dynamic orthodoxy’–which is to say what I think is at its best is what Pope John Paul II was able to embody,” Douthat said.

Douthat, who writes for the New York Times, made the remarks while participating in a panel discussion on the publication of "The Next Pope," a forthcoming book by National Catholic Register reporter Edward Pentin. In addition to Douthat and Pentin, also at the discussion were Crux editor John Allen and historian Roberto de Mattei. The discussion was moderated by journalist Diane Montagna. 

The Next Pope sketches profiles of nineteen cardinals who, according to Pentin, could be contenders to succeed Pope Francis. While there was disagreement among the panelists about the relative viability of the candidates proposed in the book, Douthat said that there is a need to elect someone who “simultaneously doesn’t leave people in serious doubt about what the Church is teaching and what it believes, but also seems to be engaged with where late modernity is going, engaged with where the world is going.”

Douthat said that while the “conventional wisdom” is that some cardinals could favor a less “charismatic leader” after Pope Francis, recent months may have shifted that perception. 

“I think the conventional wisdom is that the Francis pontificate has been such an era of sort of papal activity, intense media coverage of the papacy, and sort of particular pushes for reform or change driven by the Holy Father himself, that there may be a desire among the cardinal electors in the next conclave to sort of take the temperature down a bit,” said Douthat, suggesting that this view would suggest a “more of a retiring figure, or sort of a functional figure.”

But, he said, the coronavirus and other recent global events may have altered that calculus.

“We’ve also had this moment in the Western world, and really the whole world, over the last few months with the coronavirus that’s going to have tremendous repercussions, I think, for the Church going forward. It’s going to probably, at least temporarily, accelerate the decline of the institutional Church in the West and probably therefore accelerate some of the shifts in Catholic power and influence around the world,” he said.

Douthat said that tensions inside the Church over pushes for married clergy and other reforms had largely cooled in recent months.

“In some ways it’s a calmer moment in the Church and a more fraught moment in the world than it was two years ago, and that might arguably push the cardinal electors to look anew for dynamism in certain ways and worry less about the dangers of, you know, too much dynamism, which might have been the big worry a couple of years ago,” he said.

Douthat characterized the next pope as a man willing to do “an impossible job” and model and ability to balance clarity of teaching with an ability “to be engaged with where late modernity is going, engaged with where the developing world is going and not just sort of building a bunker around the Church.”

“I think it's hard to identify a singular figure who fits that bill,” he said.

Pentin said that the papacy had become more reflective of the Church as a global reality and the role now requires a pope “to be pretty media savvy.” 

Pentin said that “the whole globalized setting” of the Church had become much more pronounced in recent decades and was increasingly reflected in the college of cardinals and would be so in the man elected as pope. “The Church, it’s always been international but that’s the greater emphasis now, and there has to be that greater awareness of the realities of the Church in every part of the world.”

“It can’t be Eurocentric anymore,” he said.

Pentin offered the final observation that predicting who the next pope would be was likely an impossible exercise. Noting that his book profiled 19 likely candidates, he said he was expecting a surprise.

“I’ve been saying that it’s 19 [candidates] but I expect the 20th will be the one that’s picked.” 


If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!

Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.


7 Comments

  1. Yes to “dynamic orthodoxy”; no to merely “retiring”, and no to merely “functional” (except as the alternative to dysfunctional).

    Between the lines in the article, how about a pope who: (1) apart from any theology, acknowledges the non-demonstrable “first principle of NON-CONTRADICTION,” (2) consistently remembers that synods are what the Church DOES, but not what the Church IS, (3) can navigate the barque of Peter and its most essential curial offices during a likely period of FINANCIAL BANKRUPTCY–but by the same token (!) is perhaps free of McCarrick-esque lavender currency complexities, (4) RETAINS what is best from the “charismatic” Francis Moment but, to keep afloat in a turbulent sea, also knows how to actively exercise a strip-ship bill on the entrenched ballast, and (5) whose selection is actually WELL-INFORMED as through, for example, a suggested three-day social gathering of cardinal-electors prior to voting at the actual conclave (I recall an early Weigel suggestion), and/or by a complete file/notebook of cardinal bios, as initiated/announced (at least) by an independent lay group two or three years ago.

  2. If memory serves, Mr. Douthat is a schismatic ex-Catholic convert. In times past, he capably expressed unique personal views. He was articulate. Ahem. Here he is quoted as above:

    Francis pontificate has been such an era of sort of papal activity, intense media coverage of the papacy, and sort of particular pushes for reform or change driven by the Holy Father himself, that there may be a desire among the cardinal electors in the next conclave to sort of take the temperature down a bit,” said Douthat, suggesting that this view would suggest a “more of a retiring figure, or sort of a functional figure.”

    Anyone? Anyone? Anyone?

    • Correction: I’ve confused Rod Dreher with Ross Douthat. Rod is the schismatic. Ross is apparently Catholic (per Wikipedia). Sorry for the confusion.

  3. Ross Douthat is among the best of Catholic apologists [a convert who takes his faith seriously as is the trend today] a credit to the oft discredited NYTimes. Douthat’s hopeful vision of a highly orthodox pontiff to succeed Francis is as highly unlikely with the stacked deck of cardinals and Cardinal Kevin Farrell who is appointed as Camerlongo, a key position in papal elections. That is unless there is a happy turn of events perhaps now requiring the miraculous. Then we do have the theological virtue of hope.

    • Father, the College of Cardinals that elected Pope John Paul II was 100 percent appointed by Paul VI, who had a completely different temperament and was not nearly as conservative. The same College entirely picked by John Paul and Benedict gave us Francis, who is completely different from his predecessors. So while the composition of the College of Cardinals isn’t irrelevant, it’s certainly no guarantee of who is going to occupy the Petrine Office.

1 Trackback / Pingback

  1. Douthat: Cardinals should look for ‘dynamic orthodoxy’ in next pope - Catholic Mass Search

Leave a Reply to DEANNA BINTNER Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

All comments posted at Catholic World Report are moderated. While vigorous debate is welcome and encouraged, please note that in the interest of maintaining a civilized and helpful level of discussion, comments containing obscene language or personal attacks—or those that are deemed by the editors to be needlessly combative or inflammatory—will not be published. Thank you.


*