Speaking to the Pontifical Council for the Laity on June 17th, 2016 the Holy Father said :“We need lay people who take risks, who get their hands dirty, who are not afraid of making mistakes, who go forward. We need lay people with a vision of the future, not confined to the little things of life.”
Be honest ! Did you know that Catholic Canon Law states that any Catholic baptised male who has reached the age of Reason may be considered for election to the Papacy. I wrote a letter to Pope Francis, which I share with you below, asking for his advice on how I may be included on the list of those being considered to succeed him. I forwarded it by e mail to Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin. I did this some months ago now and to date have not received a reply. This is hardly surprising ….. I would love to have been a fly on the wall of the offices that received this correspondence. After the laughter had died down it would have been interesting to see which bin it ended up in. After all when the hope of the majority of Catholics world wide for Married priests and women Deacons is laughed away by a small Clericalist elite within our Church it is ludicrous to imagine that a lay Catholic committed to continuing the reforms of Pope Francis could be elected to succeed him. So why don’t I just give up ? I will tell you why.
It is critical that the successor to Pope Francis is committed to continuing the reforms he has implemented and those in the planning stage particularly in relation to his efforts to extinguish clericalism and promote a more inclusive outward looking Church. Those who have actively and vehemently opposed Francis’ Pontificate ( those who the Pope himself said ”want me dead ” ) are vigorously and relentlessly engaged in working to ensure that whoever takes over from him will be a figurehead for dismantling Francis’ reforms and returning Mother Church to the clutches of a clericalist hierarchy that facilitated a culture of world wide sexual abuse the scale of which should have consigned the Catholic Church to the darkest pages of history.
Natalia Imperatori-Lee, professor of theology at Manhattan College said: “There is no doubt that clericalism is at the root of the abuse crisis. Clericalism is isolating and insular — it cuts off the ‘oxygen’ of genuine solidarity and sharing-of-life with laypeople by creating a separate class, even a separate caste, within the church.”
Pope Francis has made his views on clericalism painfully clear. “Clericalism” he said ” is a perversion of the priesthood: it is a perversion. ”
“Clericalism, far from giving impetus to various contributions and proposals, gradually extinguishes the prophetic flame to which the entire Church is called to bear witness. Clericalism forgets that the visibility and the sacramentality of the Church belong to all the faithful people of God (cf. Lumen Gentium, 9-14), not only to the few chosen and enlightened.”
The People of God are crying out for the hierarchy to be dismantled and for clerics to become what Jesus ordained them to be , servants of the people and not the powerful unaccountable overlords that they have become. Appointing a Lay Catholic to the Papacy is a significant step in the right direction
Throughout his pontificate, Pope Francis has targeted clericalism as an illness in the church, an ailment that pretends “the church” means “priests and bishops,” that ignores or minimizes the God-given grace and talents of laypeople and that emphasizes the authority of clerics over their obligation of service. (Cindy Wooden, America Magazine, Aug 22, 2018 )
Australia’s Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse concluded that “clericalism is at the center of a tightly interconnected cluster of contributing factors” to the worldwide Catholic Church abuse scandal and added that “Clericalism is linked to a sense of entitlement, superiority and exclusion, and abuse of power,”
Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck of Essen, Germany once said :
“Sexual abuse has only one origin, [and it is] in the wrong use of power in our church,”
That power has been abused for too long. Giving the People of God an active participation in the life of the Church means nothing unless it results in the detraction from its current hierarchy. The synod on synodality means nothing unless it results in the absolute destruction of corrupt privileged elitist clericalism.
So I am sending my letter one more time , in the hope that the Holy Spirit guides it to some soul who won’t propel it into the nearest bin, in the hope that my Sisters and Brothers in our beloved Church will awaken to the grave threat of a forthcoming Clericalist Pope and in the hope that our Church will be Graced with a successor to my beloved Francis who will continue his Christ centred reforms.
Letter to Pope Francis
‘‘ Dear Papa Francesco , my Brother in Christ!
When you were asked about your vocation recently you said:
“ I heard just like a voice, a call ……..”
You said it was like a voice …. but not a voice.
During the pandemic lockdown I was awakened at 3am by a call. It too was like a voice… but not a voice. It was as if I was feeling it rather than hearing it …. I felt the words “Who can be Pope?
” I truly believe it was the Holy Spirit !
My previous understanding was that only privileged, elitist Cardinals could become the Pope but prompted by the Holy Spirit I did some research and to my surprise I learned that any Catholic male who has reached the age of Reason can become so.
The “Calling ” awoke me around 3am over a number of weeks and each time I wrote about what I “ Felt ”.
As I have said I truly believe that what was happening was the actual guidance of the Holy Spirit urging me to mission, to vocation. Prompted by this I began to write a blog which I entitled ‘Manifesto for a Lay Pope’ . Please read a little if you have time. It can be found at ‘thelaypope.com’
The Truthful conclusion of the grave concerns you have raised about clericalism is to open up all positions within Mother Church to the Laity. This includes the Papacy. The Holy Spirit advises me that I have a right, in Catholic Canon Law, as a baptized male who has reached the age of Reason to put myself forward to be considered as Head of the Catholic Church after you my beloved Brother. I therefore ask for your advice and guidance about what I have to do to progress my candidacy.
I suggest that including a lay person on the list alongside Cardinals is very much in accord with your Christ centred reforms of the Church. As Cindy Wooden in America magazine wrote ;
Throughout his pontificate, Pope Francis has targeted clericalism as an illness in the church, an ailment that pretends “the church” means “priests and bishops,” that ignores or minimizes the God-given grace and talents of laypeople and that emphasizes the authority of clerics over their obligation of service.
Of course I do not expect to be the only Lay Catholic to be included ( as I am far from the best lay person for this role) Some process would need to be arrived at to choose the most appropriate Lay candidate to join the list of Cardinals.
It would be good to speak with you about what I have written .
You are often in my prayers.
Peace and Love
God Bless you Brother, ”
“I may speak in tongues of men or of angels but if I am without Love I am a sounding gong or a clanging cymbal. I may have the gift of prophesy and know every hidden truth; I may have Faith strong enough to move mountains but if I have no Love I am nothing. I may dole out all I possess or even give my body to be burnt but if I have no Love I am none the better. Love is patient; Love is kind and envies no one. Love is never boastful nor conceited nor rude; never selfish, not quick to take offence. Love takes no score of wrongs; does not gloat over others men’s sins but delights in the Truth. There is nothing Love cannot face; there is no limit to its Faith, its Hope and its Endurance.”
1 Corinthians 13: 1-7
contact details: thelaypope@yahoo.com
Manifesto for a Lay Pope 