What awaits the new dad?

The Vatican has elected a new pontiff, Jorge Mario Bergolio, whom the Catholic world will henceforth know under the name Francis I. If the new Pope Francis I has any advantage over the previous one, there is only one thing: he will have to start against the backdrop of a frankly weak predecessor.

Benedict XVI started in completely different conditions - John Paul II was the most popular pontiff and politician of modern times. This popularity was not hampered by financial scandals (the topic of mafia money laundering through the Vatican’s financial structures was first heard loudly in the early 1980s) or revelations of pedophile priests. Under Benedict XVI, everything was completely different - the scandals that shook the Holy See were almost the only thing that the world remembered after the eight-year pontificate of Joseph Ratzinger. To resign under such conditions must have been the noblest thing the weak pope could do. The conversation, however, has long been not about his own reputation, but about the viability of the Catholic Church. Survival for this church now means meeting the challenges of today.

The new pontiff will have to answer the very questions that Ratzinger left as a legacy. And most importantly, answer to the point.

What modern challenges are we talking about? To answer this question, it is enough to refresh your memory of the very scandals that accompanied the pontificate of Benedict XVI.

First, the dark history of the Vatican Bank. Although this structure operates with considerable funds, it prefers to do without the word “bank” in its official name - the main financial department of the Holy See is called the Institute for Religious Affairs (Istituto per le Opere di Religione, IOR). It was from the accounts of this institute that 23 million euros were transferred to the Italian bank Creditio Artigiano, which were seized by the Italian financial police on suspicion of money laundering (2010 case). Following the millions, already in 2012, the head of the IOR, Gotti Tedeschi, was arrested; the investigation into his case ended with charges of corruption. The Vatican heeded the voice of the secular court, fired Tedeschi, but immediately demanded from the Italian authorities the return of all the documents confiscated from the official at fault - the non-jurisdiction of the Holy See and all its institutions for the highest ranks of the Vatican bureaucracy still remains an axiom.

Tedeschi's resignation was accompanied by another scandal - the theft and publication (so far partial) of Benedict XVI's personal and business correspondence. The papal valet (already a former one, of course) stole and handed over part of the pontiff's archive to the journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi. This story was immediately dubbed “Vatilix”; the specialist in revelations, Nuzzi, followed up his sensational book “Vatican LLC” by publishing a sequel. You may not have a taste for this kind of sensationalism, but the truth revealed to Catholics and non-Catholics around the world is nevertheless this: the Pope, as an ordinary weak politician, cannot be manipulated. Yes, this is the Holy See, but this is also ordinary big politics with its intrigues and dirt. The proverb, known to all languages ​​of the world, that one cannot be holier than the Pope, seems now is the time to label it “obsolete.”

What does this mean for the prospect of a new pontificate? Almost the main demand today for both the Vatican and the Catholic Church as a whole is the demand for transparency in the precise sense that is formed by modern society and modern media. In the era of social media and international auditing, the mantra of the inviolability and immunity of the Holy See sounds ridiculous, and to the extent that the Vatican wants to engage in politics and influence policy, it will have to rely on leading democracies and their criteria of openness. Public figures and institutions in the modern world no longer have secrets - the only question is whether the information is revealed by the source itself or whether it becomes the property of millions as a result of a scandal. And the Vatican has more than chosen its limit in terms of scandals for the next decade.

There is every reason to think that the question of the success of Francis I lies precisely in this - in the ability or inability of the highest hierarchs of the Catholic Church to move to real, rather than declarative, transparency. This, by the way, is more difficult than unconditionally condemning pedophile priests and repenting to their victims (Benedict XVI could no longer help but do this).

With a strong pope, the Vatican will probably close the topic of pedophilia, just as under John Paul II it closed the topic of anti-Semitism. There remain the problems of contraception and abortion, same-sex marriage and relaxation of celibacy - painful questions for both believers and clergy, if only because of the billion-plus Catholics today there are approximately equal numbers of those who want modernization on all these points and those who are waiting. so that at least on these points nothing changes in the future. It is hardly worth counting on decisive actions by the new pope here - it was mainly conservatives who were elevated to the cardinal dignity under the conservatives John Paul II and Benedict XVI, so it is on these issues that there are most likely no differences between potential popes. But it is not these questions - for all their painfulness - that, it seems, will determine the spirit of the new pontificate.

The Catholic world, and the world in general, absolutely lacks a charismatic pope. At stake, in fact, is the question of the survival of Catholicism in its historical form, the question of overcoming the crisis and reviving the very spirit of faith. Not in the interests of the Vatican bureaucracy or its opponents (the main groups at the conclave), but in the interests of that very billion believers. First of all, they need a new strong pope: the Europeans - to resist religious indifference, the rest of the world - to strengthen their spiritual positions in view of the expanding influence of Islam. And the Orthodox also really need a renewed and strong Catholic Church. If only to keep an example before our eyes of how Christians know how to respond to the challenges of today.