DOES GOD ELECT THE POPE?

By Tim Rohr

Rodrigo Borgia/Alexander VI

Back during the days of the Apuron Wars(2013-2018), his defenders claimed that we, the anti-Apuron people, were fighting against God because Apuron was God's choice to be Archbishop of Agana - or so they reasoned.

I suppose there could be some truth to their argument. 

After all, as we now know, the Archdiocese of Agana had been wallowing in sexual filth for decades, so they could be right given that God has often given his people the leaders they deserved (see the history of Israel).

By 1986 when Apuron ascended to his episcopal throne, and again as we now know, not only had this diocese been trafficking in the bodies of hundreds if not thousands of boys, Guam's abortuaries were running full tilt, slaughtering an estimated 600 babies a year. (Senator Elizabeth Arriola's estimation in 1989).  

Given all the graces God had blessed Guam with for hundreds of years, it's quite possible that by 1986, God threw up his hands and said "Here, have it your way!" And gave us Apuron - altar boy molester in-chief. 

After all, that's what Paul said God would do:

Therefore, God handed them over to impurity through the lusts of their hearts* for the mutual degradation of their bodies. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and revered and worshiped the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

Therefore, God handed them over to degrading passions. Their females exchanged natural relations for unnatural, and the males likewise gave up natural relations with females and burned with lust for one another. Males did shameful things with males and thus received in their own persons the due penalty for their perversity.

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God handed them over to their undiscerning mind to do what is improper. They are filled with every form of wickedness, evil, greed, and malice; full of envy, murder, rivalry, treachery, and spite. They are gossips and scandalmongers and they hate God. They are insolent, haughty, boastful, ingenious in their wickedness, and rebellious toward their parents.

They are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know the just decree of God that all who practice such things deserve death, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. - Romans 1: 24-32

So, yah. You could definitely make a case for Apuron being God's choice. It wouldn't be the first time he punished his wayward people with a wicked leader. 

And there were plenty of wicked popes too. 

The wicked, corpulent, and lustful Rodrigo Borgia, aka Pope Alexander VI (1492-1503) usually heads the list of wicked popes, but there were many bad guys who wat in Peter's Chair who made a mess long before Francis ordered the kids at World Youth Day in 2013 to do it. 

One of my "favorite" periods in Church history is what has become known as the "Iron Age of the Papacy," the period between 872 and 965, a 94 year period during which there were no less than 24 popes, 7 of whom were assassinated:

• John VIII was bludgeoned to death by his own entourage, 

• Stephen VI strangled, 

• Leo V murdered by his successor Sergius III, 

• John X suffocated, 

• Stephen VIII horribly mutilated - having had his eyes gouged out and ears, nose, and hands cut off - died of his injuries, 

• Hadrian III poisoned, 

• and John XII beaten to death.

I wrote about this several years ago in a column for the Umatuna titled: THE STRANGE TRIAL OF THE GOOD LOOKING POPE.

And lest you think this was just medieval malfeasance, the suspicion that Pope John Paul I, who only reigned 33 days (in 1978), was poisoned, is still a conspiracy that is alive and well. In fact, while most believe that Pope Francis chose to reside in the Santa Marta guest house instead of the Apostolic Palace was an act of humility, the other story is that Francis was in fear for his life and believed he'd be killed in the Apostolic Palace. So he chose the guest house for security reasons. 

But back to the matter at hand. Is the Pope chosen by God, or more specifically, by the Holy Spirit? 

I would answer "No." 

At the conclave, there is said to be as much politicking as there is prayer. If this were really just a meeting to find out who the Holy Spirit has chosen, then they wouldn't need to be in their for days, sometimes many days, and hold numerous votes. They'd just draw straws like the apostles did at the first "conclave:"

Then they prayed, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this apostolic ministry from which Judas turned away to go to his own place.” Then they gave lots to them, and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was counted with the eleven apostles. - Acts 1:24-26

Copying from Catholic.com:

When he was still a cardinal, back in 1997, Benedict XVI acknowledged that cardinals can elect sub-optimal popes. When asked on German television whether the Holy Spirit is responsible for the election of a pope, he said:

I would not say so, in the sense that the Holy Spirit picks out the pope. . . . I would say that the Spirit does not exactly take control of the affair, but rather like a good educator, as it were, leaves us much space, much freedom, without entirely abandoning us. Thus the Spirit’s role should be understood in a much more elastic sense, not that he dictates the candidate for whom one must vote. Probably the only assurance he offers is that the thing cannot be totally ruined.

He continued:

There are too many contrary instances of popes the Holy Spirit obviously would not have picked!

As for Francis, I believe the Holy Spirit did pick him, and picked him to punish a wayward and rebellious church:

• Only one in ten Catholics believe abortion is wrong in all cases.
• Six-in-ten Catholics (61%) said… that they favor allowing gays and lesbians to marry.
• Just 15% of Catholics say that using contraception is morally wrong.

- SOURCE 

Francis was certainly "the people's pope."