'Unity' could potentially turn divisive for cardinals electing new Pope

It is hard to imagine a less offensive rallying cry, but in ears of Francis' most committed supporters, it rings as a code word for rolling back Francis' more inclusive vision of Roman Catholic Church

By Jason Horowitz    Even before Pope Francis was entombed in a Rome basilica on Saturday, conservative cardinals who felt his pontificate was a divisive disaster that endangered the church’s traditions had begun politicking to sway the conclave electing the next pope.

 

They have a simple slogan: unity.

 

It is hard to imagine a less offensive rallying cry, but in the ears of Francis’ most committed supporters, it rings as a code word for rolling back Francis’ more inclusive vision of the Roman Catholic Church.

 

The concerns are a clear sign of the maneuvering by ideological camps that is already taking place among the cardinals as their shared mourning gives way to the looming task of voting for Francis’ successor in the conclave, which is expected to begin the first week of May.

 

The discussions leading up to the election are likely to touch on whether a successor to Francis should push forward, or roll back, his openness to potentially ordaining women as deacons or making some married men clergy or offering communion to divorced and remarried Catholics, among other deeply contested issues.

 

Already, the cardinals have been gathering in daily meetings. One conservative cardinal, Gerhard Ludwig Müller of Germany, said he had spent the morning making the unity case.

 

The cardinals needed to “look for the unification of the church,” said Cardinal Müller, whom Francis ousted from the church’s top doctrinal position in 2017. It was “necessary to speak about the division of the church today,” he said.

 

Some progressives within the church worry that the dozens of new cardinals Francis chose around the world will be less versed in Vaticanese and may be taken in by the sweetness of the unity siren.

 

“It sounds really good,” said Cardinal Michael Czerny of Canada, who was one of Francis’ closest advisers, but “it means reversal.” For those who opposed Francis, many of them appointed by his predecessor, Benedict XVI, unity means a “new introversion” with the promise of “unity solving all our problems.”

 

“If you ask me, ‘How would you name the wrong track for the conclave?’ I would say the idea that unity is the priority,” said Cardinal Czerny, who under Francis led the office for Promoting Integral Human Development. “Unity cannot be a priority issue.”

 

The two cardinals sit on opposing ends of the ideological divide. Those like Cardinal Czerny put priority on another word: Diversity. But unity was central to Francis’ vision of the church, too. He just saw it differently.

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