CV NEWS FEED // In an interview given two days before Pope Francis’ release from Gemelli Hospital, Catholic theologian and papal biographer George Weigel called for the next pope to be a bold defender of the full, uncompromised Gospel, especially in an era marked by spiritual confusion and cultural relativism.
The March 21 interview was given to the Italian newspaper La Veritá, and Weigel provided an English translation.
“The young Churches of Africa, in particular, remind the world Church that the Gospel in full is immensely attractive and that ‘Catholic Lite’ is not the answer to the problems of the 21st century,” Weigel said to La Veritá. “So a future pope must understand that the nature of his office is to defend and promote the Gospel in full.”
Weigel, author of The Next Pope, emphasized that one of the Church’s greatest challenges today, as exemplified by the German bishops, is not schism, but apostasy: a willful detachment from foundational Catholic truths.
“No one is interested in the Church of Maybe,” he warned. “In a world of ambiguity and cynicism, people are yearning for clarity and conviction.”
Reflecting on recent pontificates, Weigel praised the distinct contributions of St. Pope John Paul II as a moral witness, Pope Benedict XVI as a master teacher, and Pope Francis as a voice for the marginalized. He stressed that the Church must recover the courage to preach the Gospel “in full, without compromise but with care and compassion.”
Cautioning against reducing the Church into ideological camps, Weigel said, “The Catholic Church is not about left-or-right, progressive-or-conservative; the Catholic Church is about true or false, noble or base, life-giving or death-dealing.”
He also explained that a conclave is not based on “progressive-or-conservative” politics, as if it was a governmental parliament.
“A conclave is an exercise of prudential judgment by human beings,” he said, “hopefully attuned through prayer and reflection to the will of God for the Church and to the necessity of a pope who understands Luke 22:32—the imperative of teaching Catholic truth clearly and in a compelling way.”