(LifeSiteNews) — On this episode of Faith and Reason, John-Henry Westen and Father Charles Murr discuss this week’s papal conclave, the kind of pope the Church needs, the type of pope that may be elected, and more.
This episode was recorded prior to the conclave and election of Pope Leo XIV.
Westen opened the episode by asking Murr, given his years of experience as a priest, what kind of pope the Church needs today.
The priest first emphasized that the Church needs a pope who is highly intelligent and has pastoral experience.
“What the Church needs right now is an intelligent man. A man who knows his theology, a man who has his theology based on proper Catholic philosophy,” he said. “Perhaps a man who has taught a little bit in his priestly career, whether it be in a seminary or a university.”
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“We do not need … a Curia-type, a man who has been bound to an office for his whole career,” he added. “We need a man who has practical experience, priestly experience, pastoral experience, but also who will be sound in doctrine. I don’t believe that the cardinals this time around are going to make any excuse for a lack of clarity in doctrine … the next few years are going to be years of clarifying the last 12 years. And so this man has to be up to that in all senses.”
Turning to the kind of pope the cardinals will elect, Murr highlighted that they will likely choose an older man who is seen as a “moderate.”
“The cardinals who are in the conclave are probably going to be looking for a moderate man, [who is considered] neither ‘left’ nor ‘right,’” the priest said. “They would probably look for someone moderate to not split the Church wide open. This is what their worry is right now is schism.”
“I don’t think [the cardinals] want a long pontificate. I think they want someone who is a little bit older, who would be able to carry the Church forward, guide it, but also take some responsibility for the Bergoglian years that are passed,” he added.
READ: Will a heretical cardinal be chosen to succeed Pope Francis?
Murr stressed that ultimately he’d just like to see a Catholic become the next pope.
Westen jumped in to note that in his view a moderate pope would be worse than a “Pope Francis 2.0,” because at least with another radically progressive pope the cardinals might finally push back, whereas a moderate might make them feel complacent.
“If we had a Francis 2.0, a real radical who would bring us to a point of women priests, and more – if there can be more – openness to homosexuality, and God forbid, even abortion. I think at that point, you would have the reaction that we all thought we’d see from the cardinals, from the bishops of the world, finally,” the host said.
Because we thought with Amoris Laetitia, once it became clear [that] we were actually shooting for a divorce [and] remarriage community, we basically had Catholic divorce,” he added. “When we saw … the Pachamama idolatry, and then repeat it again in Canada, when you saw we would have this homosexual blessings, and this openness to Father James Martin … and the whole panoply of homosexual activism within the Church, we all thought, ‘Oh, surely, surely, the cardinals will stop this … I’m sure.’
Or maybe it’s just wishful thinking that should we have a Francis 2.0 taking us further down that heretical line, that eventually somebody would call [a] timeout, [and say,] ‘Wait, wait, something’s really, really wrong.’
For more discussion on the type of pope the Church needs and more, tune in to this episode of Faith and Reason.
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