🌊 Dispatch from Inside the Vatican

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By Max Towey

A Catholic Church insider currently at the Vatican for meetings with top Church officials – including two US cardinals – has agreed to share his observations and takeaways from conversations with Church leaders before the Conclave begins. 

It's day five of the Novendiali — the nine days of mourning following a pope’s death — but the eyes of the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s are dry.

Pope Francis’ funeral on Saturday, which drew a crowd of 250,000 that included President Trump and other world leaders, gave closure to his papacy. At the conclusion of the funeral, the crowd erupted in applause as the corpse of Pope Francis was lowered into his final resting place at the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major. 

Since then, it’s been a mob scene: Between the Pope’s death, end of spring break, start of peak tourist season, and the Church’s Jubilee year – which is expected to draw 30M into St. Peter’s Basilica in 2025 – it’s a perfect storm for Vatican security. 

A Catholic Church leader who’s currently in Rome for meetings with high-ranking Church officials agreed to speak with Roca anonymously. He told us that his first observation was the level of security near the Vatican; he’s never seen anything like it. A cab driver told him, “The people here are afraid of an Islamist terror attack. They know the world is watching.”

It’s hard to walk around St. Peter’s, but those that do are murmuring with excitement about what may soon come and for whom the white smoke – indicating a new pope – will billow.

A leading US cardinal shared his prediction with our source last night: “We’ll either have a pope on the first day or it will be many days,” he said. 

The two most recent conclaves were swift: Both Francis and Benedict XVI were elected on the second day of voting. This conclave, however, could be much more prolonged given the tectonic shifts that have taken place within the Vatican electorate.

80% of the ~135 cardinals voting in this conclave will be voting for the first time. And many don’t know each other: Francis appointed 110 of them and sought to ensure they reflect the church today, meaning it’s no longer the Eurocentric conclave it once was. In 1903, just two cardinals were non-Europeans; now a majority of them are. 

The US cardinal who gave the above prediction was one of the few to have voted in the last conclave in 2013. That conclave, which elected the long-shot Argentinian Jorge Mario Bergoglio (Pope Francis), had much more experience and camaraderie. Now, the Church is more diffuse than ever. In advance of the conclave, they are reportedly taking turns to share their views on the state of the church and the traits needed in the next pope. Many feel a sense of loyalty to Francis for appointing them. And nobody is more loyal to him than the man who is currently the favorite. 

Editor’s Note

Thank you for reading today’s installment. Please let us know what you think: Catholics – what direction do you want the next pope to take the church? Non-Catholics – do you care? Reply to this email to let us know. 

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That’s all for today. See you tomorrow —

Max and Max