Not African, Asian or European pope, but…, By Emmanuel Onwubiko

In readiness for the conclave scheduled to commence tomorrow Wednesday May 7th 2025 at the Vatican City, all the 133 Catholic cardinals who will vote for a new pope have arrived in Rome, the Vatican said on Monday, two days before they gather in a conclave to elect the next Pope and Supreme Pontiff of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics. The Pope is also the head of state of Vatican City which maintain embassies in hundreds of nations globally meaning that it is a SOVEREIGNTY.

Reportedly, the electors/cardinals hailed from 70 countries across five continents, the group — summoned following the death of Pope Francis on April 21 — is the largest and the most international ever.

It is notorious that the issue at stake is the direction of the Roman Catholic Church, a 2,000-year-old institution with huge global influence. The World follows closely this process of electing the next Pope even when all of the members of the human race are not Roman Catholics since there are approximately 6 billion human beings on the planet Earth as i write.

However, I think that practicing Roman Catholics or those intending to be converted to Catholicism have greater stake on the high expectations on who emerges as the next Pope. The tensions, anxieties and predictions on the genre of the next Pope, to the best of my belief system, are worldly and mundane because Faith is not necessarily about reasoning only but believing even when you can’t reach the perfect understanding of the metaphysical or rather the spiritual realm.  By the way, humans are imperfect beings.

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Flowing from the aforementioned, I would assert that Catholicism is not a science but a religion of Christianity formed by Jesus Christ, the Son of God who is one and the same with HIS FATHER, so we believe in the Blessed or Holy Trinity of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit meaning three persons in ONE GOD.

As a practicing Roman Catholic, this writer is delighted to know that all the 133 cardinals who will vote — all those aged under 80, minus two who are absent for health reasons, as aforementioned, will gather on Wednesday afternoon under the frescoed splendour of the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel.

And as tradition demands, the Cardinals are sworn to secrecy, risking excommunication if they reveal what happens — as are their support staff, from medics to lift operators, canteen and cleaning staff, who took their oath on Monday. The other Vatican staff that will facilitate the Conclave have similarly sworn oaths of secrecy.

As has always been observed, the Vatican authority announced on Monday that it would also cut the phone signals within the tiny city state for the duration of the conclave, although this will not cover St Peter’s Square, where thousands of pilgrims are expected to gather to see the new pope.

Similarly, on Monday morning, the media reported to us around the globe that technicians installed red curtains on the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica overlooking the square, where the new pontiff will make his first appearance.

Western media reported that the Cardinals discussed the profile of the next pope — “a figure who must be present, close, capable of being a bridge and a guide, of favouring access to communion for a disoriented humanity marked by the crisis of the world order”.

He should be “a shepherd close to the real life of the people”, the Vatican added.
– ‘Spectacular’ conclave –

Western media with their penchant for political ideologies, interpreted that Pope Francis was an energetic ‘reformer’ from Buenos Aires who helped open up the Church during his 12-year-long papacy but was accused by critics of failing to defend key Catholic doctrine. What indeed does the Pope needs to reform? These terminologies and concepts are like embarking on mere  SEMANTIC GYMNASTICS that have no correlation to our FAITH as ROMAN CATHOLICS.

Regrettably, the Western media continued to dwell on political ideologies as if the Pope is a POLITICAL IDEALOGUE.  For instance one of these politically inclune western medium stated that the question for Cardinals now is whether the successor of Pope Francis will follow a similar progressive line, or take the Church on a more conservative, traditionalist path.
Francis appointed 80 percent of the current cardinal electors — but experts caution that they may not choose someone in his mould, with many warning that there could be surprises. I will in due course debunk these binary ideologies.

Even a so-called Vatican affairs specialist Marco Politi told AFP that, given the unknowns, the conclave could be “the most spectacular in 50 years”.

The conclave begins on Wednesday afternoon and could continue for days, weeks or even months — although both Francis and his predecessor were elected within two days.

The cardinals will vote once the first day and four times a day thereafter until one of them has the two-thirds majority to be elected pope.

They will stay at the nearby Santa Marta guesthouse and are forbidden from contacting the outside world until they have made their choice.

Under a centuries-old ritual, they will inform the waiting world of their progress by burning their ballots, with black smoke indicating no winner, and White smoke signalling a new pope have arrived.

Since Pope Francis died, there have been a flurry of media activities and predictions on the kind of Pope that should emerge.

However, as severally affirmed in my earlier paragraphs, I’m writing as a believing and practicing Roman Catholic, just as I believe that the Holy Spirit ultimately would have the final say on who becomes the next Pope to ascend the seat of Saint Peter.

Some speakers and commentators have inundated the media spaces globally with divergent views on whom should be our new Pope but they are missing the point when they have pigeonholed the entire spectrum of conversations around the binary options of either a Conservative or a Progressive Pope.

For me, we don’t need a political ideologue as our Pope who would operate within the realm of either conservative/traditionalist or Progressive tendencies or ideologies.

Even though most Roman Catholics including yours faithfully want a Pope that wouldn’t be ambiguous in the interpretations of the teachings of the Church, some misguided persons outside of the Church classified the category of Roman Catholics that believe in unadulterated interpretation of the doctrines and teachings of the Fathers of the mother Church as traditionalists.

I do not share this toxic perspective.  Here is my view as presented by a great Roman Catholic writer below.

He argued thus: “No, this piece is about that false premise that there are two ideological “camps” within one Catholic Church. While I don’t deny that unfortunately polarization exists in the Church. Mine is precisely an invitation to reject it, and to reject the idea that there are two genuine ideological paths in Catholicism.

Conservative or progressive are labels which are a better fit for speaking of politics. And the Church precedes all political parties, and ideologies. Being Catholic is a lot more than politics. Being Catholic is being in relationship with a person and accepting everything this person has presented as Truth. Our allegiance to Christ and the Catholic faith should come before our allegiance elsewhere.

I think the real question people should ask is whether as Catholics we are faithful to the Magisterium or not. There are not two, a Catholic conservative and a Catholic progressive, religions. There’s only one Catholic faith!

Yes, we must live integrated Catholic lives, and bring our faith and conscience into our political decisions, absolutely! This discernment will inevitably place us, individually, in the political spectrum in our local context. But let us not taint the Catholic faith itself by adding manipulative adjectives to it.

I use the terms progressive and conservative, when referring strictly to political views, but not when referring to the Catholic faith, which is above them. The Church must not be put into a box. In my politics, I may be a conservative. In my faith, I am a Catholic, no adjective needed here.

Ultimately, using progressive or conservative when referring to the Catholic faith misleads some into believing that there are different sets of beliefs we can choose to adhere to while remaining Catholic, as if the Church was a sort of ideologically pluralistic society. This is dangerously untrue.

In conclusion, the writer stated as follows: “We belong to one, holy Catholic and apostolic Church. We accept all its teachings. Don’t ask me if I am a conservative or progressive Catholic. Ask me if I adhere to all the teachings of the Church. The answer is yes. I am a Catholic”, he concluded. Source: The Catholic Professional: Are You a Catholic Conservative or Progressive?
Cristofer Pereyra
June 11, 2024. I, Emmanuel Nnadozie Onwubiko, a staunch Roman Catholic practitioner and believer, share the perspectives by Cristofer Pereyra quoted above.

But just for ease of reference, what is tradition and why are some persons canvassing for the so-called progressive Pope who supports the adulteration of the Church’s teachings? Whenever the Western media mentions progressive Pope, they mean the head of the Roman Catholic Church that deviates from the doctrine of the Church on the meaning of marriage which is a SACRED UNION BETWEEN A MAN AND A WOMAN. So we will look at the genesis of that concept of traditionalism from the word tradition.

The etymology of the word “tradition” gives a clue to St. Paul’s meaning. Tradition comes from the Latin word tradere (in the original Greek the word is paradosis) meaning “to hand on, to deliver, or to entrust.”

The word “tradition” has other related meanings that go beyond the scriptural use of the term. Many things of different kinds have been “handed on” to us by previous generations. Some are evidently more important than others. How are we to evaluate their relative significance? We might note three broad categories of tradition that have been recognized by Christians over the centuries: (1) the traditions that were handed on from the Apostles, usually called simply “Tradition with a capital T” or the “Apostolic Tradition”; (2) various expressions of Christian faith and life that have arisen and have been handed on by Christians in different times and places and are often called “Ecclesial traditions”; and (3) cultural practices of all kinds that are passed on from generation to generation.

The Catholic Catechism explains the difference between the first two types of tradition just noted, supplying a distinction that is itself part of Catholic tradition:

The Tradition here in question [sacred Tradition] comes from the apostles and hands on what they received from Jesus’ teaching and example and what they learned from the Holy Spirit… Tradition is to be distinguished from the various theological, disciplinary, liturgical, or devotional traditions, born in the local churches over time. These are the particular forms, adapted to different places and times, in which the great Tradition is expressed. In the light of Tradition, these traditions can be retained, modified or even abandoned under the guidance of the Church’s magisterium (CCC 83)”. (Source: Prime Matters).

Conclusively, I pray fervently that the Holy Spirit would help the Cardinals entering the Conclave tomorrow to choose from amongst them, a Holy, good and Faithful Roman Catholic who would be courageous and tenacious in interpreting the Roman Catholic doctrines and the Magisterium as they truly are. We don’t want a Pope that supports same gender marriage for crying out loud. Doctrines first and nothing else. We will then chorus: “Habemus Papa” meaning WE HAVE A POPE.

EMMANUEL ONWUBIKO is the founder of the HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA and was NATIONAL COMMISSIONER OF THE NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION OF NIGERIA