RFI Explains

The Pope: his history, his role, his power

Pope Francis celebrates the Chrism Mass at St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, April 2, 2015. © Franco Origlia/Getty Images

Text by: Anoushka Notaras

17 mins

Pope, bishop of Rome, Holy Father, sovereign pontiff, vicar of Jesus Christ... There are many nouns given to the head of state of the Vatican, the smallest independent country in the world, also head of the Roman Catholic Church in the some 1.350 billion faithful throughout the world… For nearly 2000 years, from the apostle Peter to Francis, the pope has played a significant role both in the history of the Church and in history itself.

Today, he is ranked fifth among the most powerful personalities in the world.

What is its origin ?

How is he elected?

What is its role within the Church and on the international scene?

Christophe Dickès, doctor in contemporary history of international relations, specialist in Catholicism and the papacy, answers questions from RFI.

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Where does the word “pope” come from?

The word “pope” comes from the Greek

which has an affective connotation, that of the father, and which will later give the expression “Holy Father”.

The word comes to us from the East and appears in the 4th century.

At first it was reserved for bishops.

It was not until much later, in the 11th century, that the expression was exclusively reserved for the sovereign pontiff, with the pontificate of Gregory VII who said that only the head of the Church could be called pope.

This does not mean that until the 11th century there were several heads of the Catholic Church.

Only the bishop of Rome could claim this title.

Can you explain to us the notion of bishop?

Bishops appear in the 2nd century, some 30 to 40 years after the death of Saint Peter in 64 AD.

The

in Greek is the overseer.

He exercises a triple power: that of governing, of teaching and of sanctifying the faithful.

In Rome, the expression is used in the second half of the 2nd century.

The Bishop of Rome is considered the head of the Church: he guarantees the unity of the Church and derives his power from the words of Christ himself who said to Saint Peter: " 

 ”.

In the first five centuries of the Church, Rome thus affirmed itself as this place of unity.

It acquires a kind of precedence over all of the great places of Christianity such as Antioch, Alexandria or Jerusalem because it is the city where Saint Peter and Saint Paul are tortured.

The city is somehow marked with the seal of their martyrdom.

It is also here that the power of Pierre was transmitted by tradition: Lin, Clet, Clément etc.

succeeded Peter.

These successors will moreover be called vicar of Pierre, that is to say “the one who represents” Pierre.

The expression vicar of Christ will be used much later, in the Middle Ages.

How is the pope elected?

The first codifications of the election of the bishop of Rome date from the third century.

But the election as we know it today dates back to the 13th century following the longest conclave in history: 1006 days!

In Viterbo, north of Rome, the cardinals could not agree on a name to succeed Pope Clement IV.

So they were locked up in the church.

This process was absolutely not the result of a desire to hide.

But since they still couldn't get along, they were put on dry bread and water.

However, all these measures not being enough, we removed the roof of the place of the church where they were gathered, exposing them to all the bad weather.

Finally, they ended up agreeing, two years and eight months later.

It was following this unfortunate experience that Pope Gregory X laid down the first rules of the conclave.

It is also necessary to wait until the middle of the 15th century for the conclave to be held in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican.

Over the centuries, the rules have changed very little.

The last modification dates from 2007 when Benedict XVI changed one of the provisions that Pope John Paul II had taken in the event of a deadlock in the ballot.

Know that anyone can be elected pope, provided they are baptized and of course Catholic.

Cardinals did not always choose people from within the conclave itself.

At the time of Benedict XVI's resignation, much was said about Pope Celestine V, the last to renounce at the end of the 13th century.

Celestine V was not a cardinal, but a monk who enjoyed a reputation for holiness and who was sought out in his cave where he lived as a hermit.

Eventually, it turned out that this character had absolutely no skills to fulfill the obligations of his office.

So he quit after six months.

Today, it is hard to imagine that the cardinals do not elect one of them.

The pope is elected for life, except in the case of renunciation as we saw with Benedict XVI.

The real question is whether such a decision will set a precedent in the light of medical progress.

Will Pope Francis, for physical reasons, want to give up?

What will happen when a pope will not want to give up despite his weaknesses?

Pope Francis himself said that if he no longer had the strength to govern, he would give up.

How does the pope choose his name?

Here too, the tradition of choosing a name other than one's own is late.

The choice of the name of a new pope reflects a political will.

It says novelty or, on the contrary, continuity, rupture or filiation.

In 955, Pope Octavian precisely, in order to express his desire to continue the work of his predecessor, decided to change his name and call himself John XII.

There had been popes by the name of John before, but that was their real name.

Another example:

chose the name Benedict both to place himself in the tradition of Benedict XV who had worked for peace during the First World War, but also in reference to Benedict of Nursia who was at the origin of the Benedictine order .

The name Francis was a novelty because it was the first time in history that a pope was called Francis, in reference to Saint Francis of Assisi.

I think that for François, the choice of this name reflects both a rupture and a very personal sensitivity, a desire to innovate and not to do like the others...

What is the role of the pope?

The first mission of the Church and therefore of the Pope, bishops and priests, is to preach the gospel and bring souls to salvation:

, that is to say "the supreme law is the salvation of souls", as the code of canon law that governs the Church says.

The resurrection of Christ says there is life after death.

Now, the Church is there to help the faithful prepare for this eternal life.

This is why in child crime scandals

we observe a total inversion of the role of the institution.

The scandal of pedophile priests or sexual abuse is both legal and theological: it constitutes a serious offense against God.

The pope also has the function of governing the Church while preserving its unity.

This charge is defined in the Gospel of Saint Matthew where Christ addresses Saint Peter and says to him “ 

.

This means that all the decisions that will be made by the pope here below will have consequences in the afterlife, in life after death.

The second sentence on government is in the Gospel of John.

Christ addresses Peter saying, " 

 », pais from the verb graze.

This is an order from Christ calling him to govern the institution.

There is a third sentence from the Gospel of Luke: “ 

 This is a role aimed at consolidating the faithful in their faith, evangelizing or even arbitrating the conflicts that could arise within it.

This all falls under ecclesiology, that is, the study of power structures in the Church.

If we transport ourselves to the 21st century, we see that the pope naturally has all these roles that I have described to you.

But over time, the man in white acquired a political force: since the end of the 19th century, he even became a sort of moral power.

We can clearly see this with Pope Francis: he is involved in subjects as diverse as the conflict in the Middle East, relations between Cuba and the United States, the war in Ukraine, etc.

If the Holy See today has a very important political role, it is because its primary objective on the international level is to protect and ensure the freedom of Christians wherever they find themselves.

In

for example, there is a silent church which is not recognized by the Chinese communist authorities and which is even persecuted.

The role of the pope is to ensure that this church can live its faith freely, in connection with Rome.

The problem is that the Communist Chinese authorities do not accept the fact that the bishops are attached to Rome.

How was the Vatican built?

It's a long story.

In the 8th century, Constantine's donation - which was in fact a forgery - allowed Pope Stephen II to obtain land in part of Italy.

These lands - the Papal States - made the pope a temporal prince comparable to kings, dukes or counts who benefited from a domain.

This territorial domination lasted until 1870, the year during which the Pope lost his States to the benefit of Italian unity.

From then on, the pope considered himself a “prisoner in the Vatican”.

The “Roman Question”, as it was called at the time, was only resolved in 1929 by the Lateran Pacts.

It was these agreements that created Vatican City, the smallest state in the world (44 hectares) and which constitute a guarantee of its independence.

Even Hitler did not dare to violate the independence of the City!

Furthermore, the Vatican City State should not be confused with the Holy See.

The Holy See is this thousand-year-old institution which is at the head of the Catholics of the whole world, that is to say approximately 1.350 billion faithful.

While at the head of the Vatican, there is the pope;

at the head of the Holy See, Catholics naturally place Christ above his vicar.

And this vicar is the pope himself.

When a head of state visits the Vatican, he is not going to see the elected king of Vatican City, but the head of the universal Catholic Church.

There is absolutely no equivalent of the institutional structure of the Holy See in other religions.

Neither in Islam, nor in Buddhism, nor elsewhere.

What is the operation between the Holy See, which is a spiritual entity, and the Vatican State which is a temporal entity?

There are two different administrative structures, with their own budgets.

Much is said about the wealth of the Holy See, but the budget of the Vatican and the Holy See does not exceed 500 million euros.

Admittedly, the Roman church has real estate, but it does not have the budget to maintain it.

Many of these buildings are also used for charities.

But let us return to the organization of the Vatican.

The head of the Church is made up of a set of congregations and dicasteries which are like ministries with worldwide influence.

There is for example the Congregation for the Clergy, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith or even the important Secretariat of State which manages both the internal problems of the Church, but also the relations with the States.

This diplomatic network is today

Alongside this, there is an administration that manages the daily life of the small Vatican City State, with its gendarmerie, its Swiss Guards, its workers - the

, who take care of general services such as setting up the necessary for major ceremonies such as the funeral of Benedict XVI.

They maintain or restore buildings, statues, paintings and other works of art.

Mention should also be made of the organs of communication gathered within a single dicastery.

In 2015, Pope Francis wanted to rationalize all of the Vatican's media by bringing them together under a single brand:

.

In the Vatican, there is also a supermarket and a pharmacy.

There was even a train station at the beginning of the 20th century.

Note that Pope Pius XI wanted to build an airport in Vatican City, but he was told that it was not possible... On the other hand, there is a heliport.

The Roman Curia brings together all the administrations that assist the pope in his governance of the Church.

How does it work legally?

Pope Francis totally overhauled

the entire organization of the curia in 2022 to end the inflation of different offices with overlapping responsibilities.

Above all, he strengthened the power of the pope against the Secretariat of State which, for several decades, had taken on disproportionate importance.

He thus created a sort of Ministry of the Economy, independent of the Secretary of State and reporting exclusively to the Sovereign Pontiff.

The reform of the curia was also marked by the relegation to the background of the famous Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith which was nevertheless essential since it plays the role, to simplify, of our constitutional council.

All these structures have their own internal rules defined by the Constitution

.

Finally, there are tribunals within the curia, each of which has a defined role and jurisdiction.

These tribunals can act in particular in the event of an appeal to Rome from Catholics who are not satisfied with the decisions taken by the local jurisdictions of the Church.

However, the Vatican legal system has its own limitations.

We see it with the burning example of paedocriminality.

With its few dozen employees managing these issues, it is impossible for it to absorb all the crimes and misdemeanors.

In addition, his action is limited to his own right since each priest comes under national civil jurisdiction.

It is this complexity that must be accounted for and which shows that the Vatican, ultimately, has little power.

What is the place of the Vatican on the international scene? 

As I explained earlier, the papacy lost its temporal power at the end of the 19th century, in 1870. There followed a theological movement which wished to give the papacy a moral role on the international scene .

What she lost on a temporal level, she wanted to gain on a diplomatic level by wanting to transform herself into a moral power.

Thus, a diplomatic network developed from the end of the 19th century and throughout the 20th century.

Today, the Holy See has - with the United States and France - one of the largest diplomatic networks in the world.

Vatican ambassadors, known as nuncios, are there precisely to follow what is happening in the countries and to ensure that the freedoms of the Church are respected.

Another role of the nuncios is to see who would be the potential candidates for the episcopate.

The nuncio therefore also has the task of regularly transmitting to Rome a list of priests who could fulfill the office of bishop.

The Holy See can also play the role of mediator at the request of States.

In 2014, Pope Francis did so in the process of reconciliation between Cuba and the United States.

In 1978, John Paul II played an identical role between Chile and Argentina in the conflict between them over the Beagle Channel.

We also know that the diplomatic services of the Holy See have done a lot in Syria in the face of the threat from the Islamic State.

To do this, he relied on Russia.

That is why today

, since Moscow was an essential element in the protection of Christians in the East for more than a century.

Faced with the deadly steamroller that was Daesh, Vatican diplomacy played its full role.

From a general point of view, papal diplomacy is a diplomacy of silence and a diplomacy of weak signal, attentive to the smallest possibilities.

It is a diplomacy that works behind the scenes.

It is disinterested because it has no army or economic interests.

However, it may have interests that correspond to its own conceptions of the world and may, for example, intervene in international congresses to promote its ideas.

It is a disinterested actor in relation to the conflicts that may exist between States, but interested in terms of ideas, particularly on societal issues.

It should then be noted that the Holy See has a role in the internal politics of States where the Church is much more recognized than it can be in France where there is a clear separation of Church and State.

However, this is not the case for certain countries in South America or Africa or even Asia.

In Colombia, for example, the Church has played a role, as in the Central African Republic, in order to work for interior peace.

The Vatican is said to have a large intelligence force.

What do you think ?

There is a myth and at the same time a reality.

The Church is effectively connected with the whole world.

It keeps more than an eye on the whole of the life of the States like any diplomatic structure.

But she is not a nest of spies (laughs).

In fact, its priority is to defend the religious freedom of Christians where they are.

Its "intelligence network" is intended to manage issues relating to the dignity of persons, human rights, etc.

It is thus attentive to inter-State conflicts but also to internal conflicts which can degenerate into civil war.

Unlike the great powers, the Holy See does not have machines analyzing millions of data.

It is simply a network where only speech is at the center of its action.

Speech is, so to speak, his only weapon.

Christophe Dickès

is a doctor in contemporary history of international relations, a specialist in Catholicism and the papacy.

Author notably of 

(Perrin, 2018).

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