Pope John Paul II closed this week's extraordinary consistory with a solemn mass in Saint Peter's Basilica. Before the cameras and the cardinals, his left hand trembled and he needed help to hold the heavy chalice. Despite his clear speaking voice, his body movements were slow, his face stiff, and his words slurred. Although the Vatican insisted that the meeting was not a "pre-conclave", those who watched must have considered who among the 155 cardinals present was likely to emerge as the next Pope.
The consistory was called to debate the enormous challenges facing the Church in the new millennium, including cultural changes, globalisation, changing sexual morality and the demands of social justice. But, while the agenda may have been tightly controlled by Cardinal Ratzinger and other senior figures in the curia, the meeting gave cardinals and Vatican-watchers alike an opportunity to consider potential successors to the Pope.
As the future electors got to know each other behind closed doors, they were, undoubtedly, listening carefully and observing discreetly, aware that the Pope's failing health gave their meeting a significance beyond the official agenda. But if the conclave was about preparing to choose the next Pope, it was also about trying to shape the Church of the future. There were cardinals who appealed for local Churches to have greater say in global Church affairs, who complained about the stranglehold of the Curia, and who criticised the lack of frank debate and honest dialogue among church leaders. Some argued that the Synod of Bishops in Rome next October should have more decision-making power and freedom, others wanted to give more power to the church at a local level in areas such as the selection of bishops.
In his closing address, Pope John Paul called for a more missionary Church, one that is ever closer to the poor and needy and one that accepts the collegiality of the bishops. But his words can have done little to meet the demands of the increasing number of bishops and cardinals who know the church of the Third Millennium after Christ has to be less like an empire or a monarchy, that decision-making has to involve collegiality.
The Pope has appointed 92 per cent of the 134 cardinals entitled to vote in the next papal election, indicating he is intent on ensuring a successor who shares his passion for social justice and his conservative theological and ecclessial values. But will a Pope in the image and likeness of Pope John Paul II allow the church to wrestle creatively with the questions many of the cardinals wanted to debate at this week's agenda?
The Catholic Church is deeply divided on many fronts: there is a rift between North and South, between liberals and conservatives, and between the teaching of the Vatican on sexual mores and the practice of the majority of the laity. Ecumenical relations have been damaged to the degree that many talk about an "ecumenical winter". And despite the efforts of the present Pope to smother any discussion of the ordination of women, the debate will inevitably emerge with new vigour under a new Papacy.