HOW
IS A POPE ELECTED? *** The choice of a Pope has not always been what it is today. The Pope is the bishop of Rome, the successor of Saint Peter to whom the Lord Jesus has entrusted the Church (Mt 16: 18). During the course of centuries, he was often chosen in the same way as were chosen the other bishops of the Church, that is, by the local clergy and the faithful. Too often, however, during the Middle Ages, the emperor chose the bishop of Rome. At the time of the Iron Age, towards the end of the Middle Ages, the bishop of Rome was even chosen by the great Roman families who were anxious to find favor with the new Pope. During that time, the night of the Middle Ages, some Popes were murdered. The bishopric of Rome was all the more coveted because, since the time of the Carolingians in the 8th century, the Pontifical States were attached to the Roman See. For a while, there was an unfortunate lay investiture: the powerful suzerain, emperor or king, would confer on the Pope the emblems of his authority. Of course, a lay leader could never confer the spiritual power on the Pope or on the bishops. All bishops, the Pope included, receive their spiritual authority through the laying on of hands by other bishops, successors of the apostles. Their spiritual authority came from and continues to come from apostolic tradition. In 1059, Pope Nicolas II decreed that, from then on, only the cardinals could elect the Pope. In this way, religious freedom was preserved in the choice of a Pope. Thus the selection of Popes was improved and the danger of simony (the purchase of ecclesiastic preferments) disappeared. Nowadays, within a few days after the death of a Pope, all cardinals meet at the Vatican and, in a conclave (that is, in a locked room, con clave, under key), secretly and without undue influence, they elect the man who will be the next bishop of Rome, the Pope, the supreme leader of the Catholic Church, the pastor to whom Christ has given the power to bind or loose, and to strengthen his brothers (Mt 16: 18-19; Lk 22: 32). |