David Martin | The Daily Knight
- Nov 6, 2023

Francis Completing New Document to Revolutionize Papal Elections

David Martin | The Daily Knight

With glaring contempt of Pope John Paul II's 1996 Apostolic Constitution Universi Dominici Gregis governing papal conclaves, Pope Francis is currently reviewing a Vatican document that would radically change the process of electing popes.

The Remnant has learned from well-informed Vatican sources that a series of meetings have been held at Santa Marta since late spring between Pope Francis and Italian Jesuit canonist Cardinal Gianfranco Ghirlanda, with one specific goal: to change Pope John Paul II's Apostolic Constitution in such a way as to revolutionize who elects the pope by having laity and women comprise twenty-five percent of the vote.

This latest plan from Rome constitutes not a reform but a doing away with due process in the election of popes and marks yet another break from Apostolic tradition.

Lay participation at Conclaves

Until now lay people were not allowed to participate at papal conclaves whereas now, if promulgated, the new ruling would allow laymen and women religious to vote in the elections while the good cardinals are sidelined and only those [radical left] cardinal electors appointed by Francis are allowed to participate.

Vatican journalist Diane Montagna reports for the Remnant:

Professing to “return to the early Church”, the idea would be to have cardinal-electors, the majority of whom Pope Francis has chosen, comprise seventy-five percent of the vote, while the remaining twenty-five percent would be made up of laymen and women and religious sisters, papally appointed by Pope Francis in advance of the Apostolic See becoming vacant.

If the new document is promulgated, cardinals over the age of 80 would be excluded from the preliminary phase of the conclave, that is, from the General Congregations. This poses a detrimental blow to the conclave since these experienced elders play a pivotal role in shaping the ideas of the cardinal electors as pertinent Church issues and the needed qualities of a papal candidate are discussed.

Bureaucratic Ironclad Control

While Francis' plan is being touted as a move toward electoral synodality, it in fact is an attempt to impose ironclad control over papal elections. All electors would be briefed ahead of time as to how they should vote. This new "synodal" approach to the conclave is just an insidious means of facilitating the deep-state Vatican plan to dictatorially impose pre-appointed "popes" under the guise of electoral fairness.

Battle Ahead

It is anticipated that the implementation of the plan will trigger conservative backlash and augment the already growing "confrontation between the Church and the antichurch" (Pope John Paul II). According to the Remnant, the document, if promulgated "will surely meet with considerable resistance from the members of the Sacred College."