Faith Works: As cardinals select a pope, how do various religious traditions pick leaders? – The Newark Advocate

This week, a conclave of cardinals begins the work of selecting a new bishop of Rome, and leader of the Catholic Church.
It’s a very public process, with the traditions and rituals of secluding the voting cardinals (not all cardinals vote, but most of them) to focus their prayers and reflections, and then the crowds thronging St. Peter’s Square to watch for the legendary “white smoke,” which means a new Pope has been chosen, as the ballots are burned.
It’s a democratic process of sorts. Not a popular democracy, where Catholics line up in various parishes to vote for a candidate; not every priest or even each bishop, just cardinals, and those over 80 years of age are excluded, making it about 135 who will be crowded into the Sistine Chapel.
There’s an old saying about campaigning for the office, I’ve been told by people with some experience in Rome: Those who enter a conclave as pope will leave a cardinal, which is to say, don’t put too much faith in a front-runner.
Our presidential campaigns used to run more that way, too. I’ve been spending a great deal of time lately in 1859 and 1860; Lincoln didn’t even go to the Republican Convention in Chicago in the summer of 1860. Everyone knew he was “in the running,” but the most likely candidates were Ohio’s Salmon Chase or William Seward, of New York. Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, was a “dark horse” candidate, but his allies campaigned on the floor, while Abe stayed downstate in Springfield.
It’s quite possible by the time you read this, the new pope will be selected, but given that so many of the current crop of under-80 cardinals don’t know each other, and most have never even been to a conclave, it could take a while, just to allow them to size one another up. And the final selection could be someone we’re not all talking about.
Various religious traditions have a variety of ways of selecting their pre-eminent leader. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a process that ends with its most senior leader as president of the church, and the current officeholder is Russell M. Nelson, who is 100 years old.
Contrariwise, there are Amish groups that come to a time of leadership transition, which tends to happen each year, and the adult men are called forward to select a Bible from a table covered with them. When everyone has chosen, an elder calls out a Bible verse, to which all turn. One man finds in his Bible a slip of colored paper on that page, and he is the leader for the coming term.
Age, providence, election: Which is the best way? My own religious tradition has a “General Minister and President” who serves a six-year term, which can be reaffirmed once, voted on at a General Assembly, which we’ve held every other year but is about to move to every third year, but where each church has representatives who can vote, as can each minister with standing. In her second term currently is the Rev. Teresa Hord Owens, and she’s done a fine job in this parson’s opinion.
My mentor in seminary, the Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, was a nominee for the office in 1991. He recently wrote a book titled “The Nominee: A Novel,” which puts “a novel” in the title to make it clear this is fiction. However, if you were around our religious tradition in 1991, you’ll quickly realize he’s barely fictionalizing the process. I commend the book, and my quick take on it is that he’s wanting to communicate something about the complexity of how any religious group selects leaders.
What is the right way to do it? I really can’t say. But I’ll be “watching” for that white smoke.
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller and preacher in central Ohio; he’s interested in how you think religious leaders should be selected. Tell him at knapsack77@gmail.com or follow @Knapsack77 on Threads or Bluesky. 

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