December 25, 2024 - 8:00am
Pierbattista Pizzaballa is a name that deserves to be world famous. Very soon, it might be. It belongs to one of the most intriguing figures in the Catholic Church, who’s recently emerged as a leading candidate for the top job.
Pizzaballa’s current role — Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem — is challenging enough. This week he made headlines by entering the Gaza Strip to visit the territory’s shattered Christian minority. His promise not to abandon his flock comes with some credibility. At the outset of the war, he made a serious offer to take the place of the Israeli hostages snatched by Hamas on 7 October 2023. Now, with an end to the war in sight, he’s likely to play a key role in facilitating whatever peace is possible.
However, it’s the part he might play in the choice of the next Pope that’s attracting the most attention. Francis is increasingly infirm and often unable to undertake the travel that is part of the modern papacy — he was, for instance, absent from the re-opening of Notre-Dame in Paris earlier this month. The film of the Robert Harris novel Conclave is currently in cinemas, but before long we could be watching the drama of a real papal election.
In Harris’s fiction, the man chosen to be Pope (who, spoilers ahead, turns out to be a woman) is a mysterious bishop from the Middle East. Apart from the lurid plot twist, the same can be said of Pizzaballa. Until last year, he wasn’t even a cardinal. And yet upon receiving his red hat he was suddenly catapulted into the ranks of the papabili.
A big part of the attraction is that he’s not a factional figure — being associated with neither the allies nor the enemies of the current Pope. Where Francis blunders into needless controversy, Pizzaballa is the diplomat he’s always had to be — both in his current position and, before that, as custodian of the Holy Places of Jerusalem (a job that requires the delicate handling of ancient sensitivities).
Other advantages are his relative youth (he’s 59) and health (apparently good). After 25 years of elderly, ailing Popes, that would make a change. He’d also be the first Italian Pope since the 1970s, but one who’s spent most of his career a long way from the politics of the Vatican.
There are things about him that will please reformists and traditionalists alike. He seems at home in the modern world, but is also appreciative of older forms of worship; he has, for instance, celebrated mass ad orientem (i.e. facing away from the congregation and turned towards Jerusalem and God). So there’s reason to hope that, as Pope, he’d end Francis’s obsessive clamp-down on the traditional Latin mass.
But what does Pizzaballa actually believe? Theologically, is he a liberal or a conservative? Politically, does he lean to the Left or the Right? The truth is that it’s remarkably hard to tell. Unlike many of his rivals, he’s not one to inflame the Church’s divisions.
By next Christmas, or the one after that, Pizzaballa could be Pope — and it’s only then that his brother bishops will discover the full measure of the man.
Peter Franklin is Associate Editor of UnHerd. He was previously a policy advisor and speechwriter on environmental and social issues.
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SubscribeAt 60 he would be far too young. He would be Pope for, possibly, over 30 years, and go through the “old and infirm” stage anyway.
I wonder what I said to deserve 7 downvotes…
Unless he got the JP1 treatment…
Indeed 😀
Should he become the next Pope? Given the information in this article, no, as little is learned about him. He’s also too young.
Pope Francis was only meant to last a few years when he came in according to articles like this. It has now been over a decade with his health, supported by the best medicine known to man, fluctuating from fine to frail. This is one of those unpleasant side-orders of Roman Catholicism, the modern day obsession with pope-watching. Much better in the Middle Ages when you might not hear about a change of Popes and you knew that it would be some corrupt Italian anyway so didn’t care much unless you were a king or cardinal.
Also, ad orientem isn’t “towards God” any more than ad occidentem.
Correct. Ad orientum is not toward God, but facing East. The direction of the sun (Son).
Catholicism is replete with tradition, mystical and symbolic.
But not being Catholic yourself I expect you don’t know that.
I know, I just don’t agree that these mystical, symbolic traditions (of which ad orientem is a benign quirk) are necessary for salvation.
Not too young.
True, the author seems to know little about him in many regards, but his experience in Jerusalem and the willingness to offer himself for the sake of the Israeli hostages say a lot about him.
It will require a leader of great courage and physical stamina to begin a desperately needed cleanup of the Vatican.
May God grant us a holy, humble, wise, and loving Pope when Francis leaves to be called to account.
The Pope did not go to Notre Dame because he refused to be part of the Macron show; this last week the Pope was in Corsica.
Yes, I was thinking about that. I have not read anything about him wanting to make some sort of stand, though.
Pope Francis was only meant to last a few years when he came in according to articles like this. It has now been over a decade with his health, supported by the best medicine known to man, fluctuating from fine to frail. This is one of those unpleasant side-orders of Roman Catholicism, the modern day obsession with pope-watching. Much better in the Middle Ages when you might not hear about a change of Popes and you knew that it would be some corrupt Italian anyway so didn’t care much unless you were a king or cardinal.
Also, ad orientem isn’t “towards God” any more than “versus populum” (as the name suggests).
If Pizzaballa will become Pope it will open a period of very strained relations with the Jews and Israel.
So it should. When the Israeli cabinet consists of convicted terrorists who condone throwing rocks at Christian worshippers I’d expect any Pope to less than favourable towards them
I strongly suggest you dive a bit deeper for your next article if you’re going to even try to scratch the surface of what separates the post Vatican II adherents from traditional pre 1955 Catholics.
Ad orientum is one visible tip of a huge iceberg. Try usthesis.us and the book Work of Human Hands by Father Cekada (RIP).
Conclave: A great movie destroyed at the end by a gratuitous injection of secular politics echoing (medically and psychologically incorrectly) the cause of the moment – transgenderism.
Yeah, the ending was shite!
Better the Antichrist you know.
No sale. After the predictably lengthy papacy of John Paul II, there was general agreement that “We’re not doing THAT again!” A Cardinal in his fifties is generally considered to be about fifteen to twenty years short of acceptable. Moreover, a return to an Italian papacy ignores the demographic shift of the Roman Church, and the Curia’s pivot in response.
“…Pizzaballa. Until last year, he wasn’t even a cardinal. And yet upon receiving his red hat he was suddenly catapulted into the ranks of the papabili.”
Seems very suspicious to me…
A name that deserves to be famous? Perhaps as an item on a ridiculously expensive menu at a trendy spot in SOHO?
Clearly, the answer to the question in the headline is yes, he could. Followed by, but he might not.
Quite difficult to turn someone who is ommipresent.
Old popes have the advantage of a new election within the foreseeable future. New round, new prizes.
If you are going to spoil the surprise, in future, please give a little more warning. I hadn’t seen or read ‘Conclave,’ yet, so thanks a lot for the ‘spoilers ahead’ warning coming immediately in front of the spoiler itself. Not cool.