Papal Election and the Church as a Democracy. Why Not?

[abucs]

Agreed. I’m not speaking in terms of dogmatic decree or even church discipline! The only recourse the faithful would have to voting would be for the person of the Pope, and once he’s in, that’s it. He’s in for life (or until he abdicates).

I think this is a very good and interesting question. Sorry that I am not an expert but can only offer my uneducated thoughts.

I think the position of the church is that the Holy Spirit is involved in guiding the electors in choosing a pope. Perhaps part of this position is that in order for the Holy Spirit to do this there must be some confidence that the electors have bound themselves to the church and the will of God.

Perhaps simply being enrolled as a Catholic is insufficient to ensure ‘confidence’ of being guided by the Holy Spirit and because of this your hypothetical process may be seen theologically as a subversion of the will of the Holy Spirit. This may go back to Jesus calling the 12 apostles (or the Holy Spirit at Pentecost) and each pope being ‘chosen’ or at least ‘consecrated’ from a group of successors to this group with the handing down of such a calling from one consecrated person to another’ I am not sure of any specific canon law or doctrine with this definition but there may be one. Again, this is just an uneducated contribution.

I think we would all mostly agree here that it would be a bad idea on many levels, but your question of whether it is theologically possible is an interesting one.

Your revised theoretical process of church members electing consecrated people (bishops) to elect a pope may sidestep any theological problems but it would also reverse the understanding of the church where prospective Bishops may be courting the popularity of church members rather than preaching the good news. The other thing is that democratically it would be difficult to argue that a Catholic in say the United States or Italy has 10 times more say in electing a pope/elector bishop than say a Chinese or Brazilian Catholic. Also if we were truly democratic, would not it become a continual regional vote (Africa verse South America etc) with electors not really knowing the qualities of each bishop. How for example would a Brazilian in the Amazon or one in the Congo be able to assess the qualities of a Pope John Paul II or Benedict?

Also how could you ensure someone like the Chinese communist government doesn’t suddenly claim an extra 100 million people registering to be Catholic and who want a Communist pope or 40 Communist bishop electors. Does the Catholic church take responsibility for the integrity of elections. If they are opposed by the Chinese government and sideline Chinese Catholics is this really democratic? Practically a democratic election would cause a strong and corrupt division of people and candidates as it appears to be causing in the civil world.

Honestly I don’t know if democracy will survive another 100 years in western civil life.

Of course I acknowledge again that your question is theoretical and targeted towards asking if such a process is consistent with church law rather than a good idea.

 

[poche]

In theory the Pope could issue a moto proprio and change the manner in which the subsequent popes are elected. How the Pope is chosen is a matter of discipline.