Fat or Skinny Pope

Praying for the successors of St. Peter

02/25/2025

Mark 9:30-37 Jesus and his disciples left from there and began a journey through Galilee, but he did not wish anyone to know about it. They came to Capernaum and, once inside the house, he began to ask them, "What were you arguing about on the way?" But they remained silent. For they had been discussing among themselves on the way who was the greatest. Then he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them, "If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all." Taking a child, he placed it in their midst, and putting his arms around it, he said to them, "Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me."

Have you been keeping up with Pope Francis and his critical health situation? I have been watching the news daily for updates and burning up my rosary beads for him. Every Sunday afternoon my family does a conference call – my parents, my brother and sister, any in-laws, and nieces and nephews (the outlaws) – and Pope Francis is one of our intentions of our family rosary. I hope you have been praying a little extra for our Holy Father as well lately.

This morning, Tuesday, February 25, I checked my phone to see if there had been any updates on his health and recovery. Newsweek published an article at 5:26 EST with an update straight from the Vatican. It said: “Pope Francis is continuing his recovery from pneumonia in hospital and has resumed some work, the Vatican announced Tuesday morning.”

As you know, Rome is 7 hours ahead of us here in Arkansas, so at 5:26 a.m. here in Fort Smith, it was already 12:26 p.m. in Rome, Italy and everyone there was sitting down to their big pasta meal and then going to hit their afternoon siesta.

As Pope Francis ails and approaches his eternal reward questions naturally start circling (like vultures around a cadaver) about who the next successor of St. Peter will be, who will wear the “shoes of the fisherman,” as the pope is figuratively referred to.

When a pope dies, all the cardinals 80 years old or younger gather in the Sistine Chapel to vote for the next pope. As of October, 2024, there are 141 Catholic cardinals under the age of 80, and that number will decrease – as cardinals age-out – to 126 by the end of 2025. So the number of cardinals who are “papabile” (eligible to be pope) is always a sliding scale.

As Americans living in a democracy polarized between conservatives and liberals, we cannot help but think of the next papal conclave except in terms of whether the next pope will lean left or right. Indeed, there is an old Italian proverb that says, “Seguite sempre un papa grasso con sottile,” meaning “Always follow a fat pope with a skinny one.” Or, follow a liberal pope with a conservative one.

And it will take 77 votes to get to the required 2/3 majority to be the next pope. Some of the names of “papabile” cardinals that have risen to recent prominence include conservative cardinals such as Peter Erdo from Hungary and Ambongo Besungu, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, who, if he were elected would serve as the first black pope.

Among the frontrunners on the more liberal wing are cardinals Luis Antonio Tagle of the Philippines and Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, who by the way, is leading the evening rosary vigils in St. Peter’s Square every evening. So he’s getting some prime time TV coverage.

But a better way to think about the election of the next man who slips his feet into “the shoes of the fisherman” is to ask, “Who would Jesus want to be the next pope?” After all, this is his Church far more than it is our Church.

And ultimately, it is the Holy Spirit who not only decides who will be the next pope – through the human instruments of cardinal electors – but He is the One who guides the Barque of St. Peter down the ages. The Holy Spirit is really the One in charge of the Church.

And we get a good sense of whom Jesus would want to lead his Church in the gospel today. The first cardinal-electors, the apostles, are arguing about which of them is the greatest – perhaps echoing the conversations in the Sistine Chapel during the vacancy of a pope – and Jesus says: “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.”

In other words, Jesus does not want a conservative pope or a liberal pope, a fat pope or a skinny pope, but a humble pope, a holy  pope, a servant leader. And whatever you may think of Pope Francis, I believe Jesus would be very pleased and proud of his tenure so far in the shoes of the fisherman.

Yesterday, on February 24, the Vatican gave an update on the pope’s health, and added: “In the evening [Pope Francis] called the parish priest in the Gaza parish to express his paternal closeness.” That to me sounds like something Jesus would do. Francis is not a fat pope or a skinny pope, he’s just the right pope. And let’s pray the next one will be too.

Praised be Jesus Christ!