ROME — A group of hardline conservative Catholics are pushing for the next pope to be better aligned to their worldview — and they don’t seem afraid to use smear tactics to discredit candidates they don’t like.
With cardinals set to enter the Sistine Chapel on May 7 to begin electing the next pope, enemies of the late Pope Francis, within and outside the group who will be choosing him, are mobilizing. A vocal faction who have discredited Francis as a heretic, the anti-pope and even the “Anti-Christ” for his supposedly liberal outlook, have been waiting in the wings. Now they see the time to strike.
Conservatives were angered by Francis’ more conciliatory stance on same-sex unions and divorce, defense of migrants, and a Vatican deal with China that gave Beijing a say in the appointment of Catholic bishops.
“The hope is to have a pontificate that concentrates more on Catholic issues, such as pro-life and family, rather than climate change and immigration,” Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis, a German aristocrat and doyenne of the Roman conservative Catholic scene, told POLITICO.
Some conservative influencers are pushing hard-right candidates, such as Athanasius Schneider, a bishop in Kazakhstan, who has claimed that refugees in Europe are a “mass invasion” leading to Islamization, orchestrated by political elites to diminish Europe’s Christian identity.
Other names circulating on conservative lists include Cardinal Robert Sarah, of Guinea, a prominent supporter of the Latin mass and the American Cardinal Raymond Burke, an arch-traditionalist who has endorsed U.S. President Donald Trump.
“We are seeing a paradox that the leadership is more liberal but there have been a huge number of conversions and a huge growth in traditionalism,” said John Yep, CEO of conservative nonprofit group Catholics for Catholics, which held a $1,000-a-ticket prayer event for Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort. “Cardinals realize that even though some of the leaders may be of a liberal bent they know that their flocks back home are really tending towards more conservative.”
“That will be on their minds as they go into the conclave.”
Fifty-six per cent of Catholics voted for Trump, Yep said. “That same block of people is looking to Rome and wanting their Pope to be traditional and be a strong ally of the U.S. and our outlook, for example on securing our borders.”
‘Countercultural antisecularization’
Even before Francis died on Easter Monday, a campaign to discredit his reforms had begun, stemming from a growing body of well-financed, U.S.-based conservative Catholic nonprofit groups, working with far-right politicians to promote a cocktail of Catholic doctrine and nationalism.
Among the most prominent is the Napa Institute, known for its luxurious annual conferences at a California wine spa that aims to blend “conservative theology and libertarian economics, with an emphasis on apologetics, sexual ethics and countercultural anti-secularization.”
Another organization, Sophia Institute Press, funds the traditionalist Catholic blog One Peter Five, which regularly rebuked Francis and partners with the Catholic TV giant EWTN that was used to accuse Francis of covering up clerical abuse.
One project, the Red Hat Report, launched in 2018, aimed to use former FBI investigators to compile dossiers on each cardinal, in the manner of political opposition research, noting their theological and pastoral priorities and giving them a score on their handling of the clerical sex abuse scandal.
Their principle target was Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Francis’ second in command and the favorite to succeed him. He should “be known globally as a disgrace to the church” the editor wrote in a memo to researchers.
The conservative right’s influence may also benefit from the Vatican’s increasingly dire financial situation, with Reuters reporting an income shortfall as high as €83 million.
With the city state reportedly seeking outside funding, the selection of the next pope could be vulnerable to wealthy right-wing donors in the U.S., one high-ranking Church official told POLITICO, adding that the topic came up at pre-conclave huddles called general congregations that cardinals have been attending daily for the past week.
Kingmaker, lobbyist
The next few days, before the start of the conclave that will decide on the next pope, are critical as conservative Catholics try to make their voices heard to voting cardinals.
“It’s extremely important that the new pope gets the reins again and reaffirms what Catholics have believed for 2,000 years,” said Catholic for Catholics’ Yep, who described Francis as one of the most controversial pontificates in modern church history.
Yet even the conservative groups themselves acknowledge they have an uphill battle. With 80 percent of the cardinal electors appointed by Francis, their best hope may be to block progressive candidates.
The conservatives are also held back by having no clear leader. Cardinal George Pell, who died in 2020, was a “kingmaker, lobbyist, and a key power player,” said a well-connected Vatican ambassador, but since he died “there is no clear leader of the pack.”
The hardliners are trying everything but given the conclave math, don’t have much faith that the next pope will be one of their own.
“Not only do they not have the numbers to get any guy in like Cardinal Sarah or [Hungarian Cardinal Peter] Erdo, they don’t even have the numbers to be a blocking minority against the liberals,” said Benjamin Harnwell, an Italy-based correspondent for Steve Bannon’s War Room. “It’s a non-Catholic conclave.”
A well known Italian adage goes “fat pope, thin pope” meaning that conclaves tend to counterbalance the preceding one with an ideological shift.
Intimidation tactics
One thing that has changed since the last conclave in 2013 is that lobbying has gone digital.
With a proliferation of conservative blogs and influencers on social media the campaign this time is “like nothing I’ve seen before,” said Stephen Schneck, former director of the Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies at the Catholic University of America. “A gushing flood of analyses, opinions, and actual campaigning by outside groups and influencers is under way, he said, suggesting its immediacy and reach could make a difference.
Frontrunners are fretting about what may emerge. A video of Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, among the most likely to succeed Francis, singing a karaoke rendition of John Lennon’s Imagine, was published by the right-wing website LifeSiteNews, with critics claiming lyrics such as “Imagine there’s no heaven” are a “surrender to atheism”.
“They know they don’t have the numbers so the aim is to intimidate the reformists,” said veteran Vatican watcher and journalist Marco Politi. “The message is: ‘Look you cannot choose a Francis II. It’s a psychological game.’”
But once cardinals are in the Sistine Chapel, they are removed from outside interference.
“It’s difficult to say what will happen in that boiler room” the Vatican ambassador said. “The best-laid plans don’t always survive contact with reality. This group of cardinals has never had the opportunity to get to know each other. They are still stretching their muscles, to see what kind of people they are.”
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