LESSONS AFTER JOHN PAUL I

...and that the most the victors could hope for was a standoff...

...The cardinals who will ,soon gather to choose a new pope will be in a somber mood, conscious that the man who remarked, immediately after they elected him, "May God forgive you for what you have done to me," might well be alive today had they permitted him to return to Venice after the conclave...

...We shall never know whether ,Pope John Paul would have created another precedent by resigning upon reaching that age...

...IOHN nAY HUOnES (A widely published church historian, Father John Jay Hughes is adjunct prolessor of history at St...

...And his clearly-expressed intention to take seriously the episcopal collegiality mandated by Vatican II both sets the course for his successor and calls into question the pessimistic assessment of a brilliant and celebrated clerical journalist in August: that the conclave to elect Paul VI's successor would be a contest between the victors and the vanquished of Vatican II...

...He had not pronounced, we read, upon "the great questions which divide the Catholic Church," amongst which were listed, with charaoteristic incomprehension, "abortion...

...Louis University...

...If there is any mexit, however, to the argument, advanced above, that John Paul's clear commitment to power-sharing in the church constitutes a mandate ,for his successor, then the next pope is unlikely to consider that all wisdom resides in Rome, or even in .the hierarchy...

...As Catholics the world over rose to celebrate the Mass of the Archangels, they :learned that their chief pastor had been called home by the angel of death, to celebrate the feast where Mass and sacraments are neither possible, nor necessary...

...While the same is not quite true of the sedia gestatoria, it will be clear henceforth to all but the most bigoted anti-Catholic that when a pope permits himself to be carried about in a ceremonial chair (in which all three popes since Plus XII have felt uncomfortable), it is so that people may see him, and not because he is above the rest of humankind...

...This is indicated not only by the astonishing events of the last five weeks, but by a factor of unparalleled significance: the renewed outpouring of prayer aU over the world to the Spirit of H~n whose thoughts are not our thoughts, whose ways are not-our ways, and for whom all things are possible...

...Peter's creed consisted of little but the lapidary confession, "Jesus is Lord," added to the ancient statements of Jewish monotheism...

...A matter to which the late Pope would doubtless have turned in time, since it received the close attention of his three predecessors, was improving the rules for the choice of his successor...

...Inevitably the health of prospective candidates will be closely scrutinized by his electors...

...Seldom has the truth of this antiphon from the old breviary Office of the I)ead been more vividly illustrated than in the dear of Albino Luciani, only 34 days after his election as Pope John Paul...

...As we await, once again, the senior Cardinal Deacon's announcement of "great joy," we would do well to treat journalistic speculation about the outcome with the skepticism it deserves, and prepare .for the unexpected...

...The thousand-yearold ceremony of papal coronation, and with it the triple crown wRh all its triumphalistic associations, has finally been consigned to the museum of history...

...This would be quite long enough to permit a pope to set his stamp upon the church , without killing him in .the process...

...Commonweal: 645...

...Brief though his pontificate was, John Paul established a number of significant precedents which we can recognize, even now, as irreversible...

...This would go far to eliminate the stagnation and dri6t that have so often characterized the closing years of a pontificate...

...His successor may wish to consider .another solution: election of a pope for a fixed term...

...John Paul's successor will find it increasingly difficult to use the ancient papal "we," save where the solemnity of the occasion demands it...

...Peter's moral record included open cowardice: before the Lord's crucifixion, and later over the admission of gentile converts to church fellowship, a matter on which Paul "opposed Peter to his face, for he was clearly in the wrong...

...This is aheady the rule for the superiors of most religious orders...

...Where but in the Catholic Church would men in their .late fifties ,be considered "too young" ,for election to one of the world's most onerous positions...

...Only a pope can alter the conditions under which a pope is elected and candidates are limited to non-binding expressions of personal opinion about possible future changes...

...Pope John Paul's most important dogmatic pronouncement was identical with that made by every Catholic, including children (whose sparkling catechist this Papa Luciani delighted to be): the creeds of the church's liturgy...

...His most important moral pronouncement was the statement of his own life...

...The instant popularity of the late Pope's straightforward and down-to-earth diztion will render recourse to the convolutions of the soporific curial style increasingly problematical...

...By beginning his reign with a simple Mass "to inaugurate the ministry of the church's Supreme Pastor," John Paul gave this title a prominence which his successor will be unable to ignore...

...But then-we romembered: upon his eleotion five ~veeks previously the 13 October 1978:644 same organs of public opinion had solemnly informed us that the new pope was "against ahortion"--blisdully unaware that this was roughly equivalent to saying that an American president was "against Communism...

...Little indeed, the secular media informed us...

...Since only a pope can change the rules in such a matter, discussion of this question might seem an exercise in f~tility...

...If that record seems modest, i,t was at least equal to that compiled by the first pope...

...Hitherto discussion of this matter seems to have been limited to speculation about extension of the present episcopal age limit of 75 to the Bishop of Rome...

...Indirectly, but with equal inevitability, this raises another question: whether the church is well served by a system which excludes ,from serious consideration for its highest office candidates below their early sixties...

...There seems every reason to,expectthat he will be open to the views of members of his flock, however humble...

...Meanwhile, the cardinals are in a bind...

...What about ten years...

...Any.thing like a commitment would nullify the election through the canonical crime of simony: obtaining church office for a consideration...

...What had he accomplished in the shortest pontificate for more than three and a half centuries...

...It would open the church's highest office to men in their prime not only at their election, but with the additional promise of continued vigor at the conclusion of their term...