Will they vote for more... or less?

Yes, it's The Conclave show.

Thanks to the film, Conclave, everyone is now an expert. Or rather, the film has confirmed a tranche of “expert” perceptions. White smoke, black smoke, bits of hand-pressed, handwritten woven paper dropped in a chalice. Everyone in full scarlet fig seemingly around the clock, secret conversations in gloomy marbled corners, as another Machiavelli meets a Richelieu to plot. And after all that, then what?

What will the church look like this time next year?

Firstly, we need to have some thoughts about what has been happening since Pope Francis’ enthronement and his impact on Holy Mother Church; perhaps an apt phrase, given Francis’ Marian tendencies.

Some twenty-five years ago, Cardinal Bergoglio was not widely known outside The Argentine, but in 2013, he was the preferred choice of many liberal cardinals who felt he would represent a necessary corrective to the Benedictine traditionalist theological years. He had, in fact, come close to being elected in 2005 – and his supporters believed he would make the Church seem more relevant to the modern world. Indeed, on election, when he appeared as Pope on the balcony of St Peter’s without the traditional red shoulder cape and state stole, it was clear that his intended pontificate would be one of image and gesture.

His vision was a church of collaboration—of synodality. The church would seek greater participation from the bishops, different orders, laypeople, and other members of the Catholic community in discussions and deliberations. He sought to decentralize certain aspects of Church governance, giving greater authority to local bishops and episcopal conferences.

But the problem with asking everyone what they think, is that you create an expectation of reform and change. You’re hinting that; “If you think it’s bad, we’ll think about changing it, of course”.

But the traditionalists’ concerns were that if Vox Populi suggested that the church’s teachings were flawed, then the modernists might feel enabled to introduce changes to those doctrines. In turn and by implication, if any doctrinal issue is wrong now -