Another Avignon Papacy?

There were reports a few days ago that President Macron had been on the telephone to the five French Cardinals with a vote urging them to block the election of Cardinal Sarah in the forthcoming Conclave. This story seemed to be well-attested and was being taken seriously by various websites.

One might just add that in 1904 the recently elected Pope Pius X abolished the claimed right of Veto which had been used against the leading  candidate, Secretary of State Cardinal Rampolla, by the Cardinal Archbishop of Krakow on behalf of the Emperor of Austria. There is more about that at 1903 papal conclave

Now it is interesting that the so emphatically  secular “French Republic” was taking such interest in such an ecclesial event, although one should remember that the post-1905 French state still has the right to bestow its approval for appointments to dioceses by the Holy See,  and, of course, M. Macron is, ex officio, a canon of the Lateran ….

One might note that none of these five Cardinals occupy sees such as Paris, Rouen, Bordeaux, Reims or are the current Archbishop of Lyons, such has been the curious way in which the late Pope bestowed red birettas.

Now if we  add to this instance of state intervention through a somewhat curious grouping of Cardinals, the warning given by Cardinal Gerhard Müller in his interview to The Times about the risk of schism if a Pope were elected who was perceived as being unorthodox, then we do seem to be moving into some very murky waters.

Being an historian my mind drifts back to pontificate of Pope Boniface VIII and his falling out with King Philip IV culminating in the events of 302-3, not to mention the period from 1305 until 378, if not indeed 1403 or thereabouts. Here was a succession of French Pope and antipopes until 1394. There have indeed been no subsequent Popes from the Eldest Daughter of the Church, Ancien Regime  Gallicanism did not produce any.

If you want an insight tnto the machinations of Franco-Papal dealings in the latter phase of the Avignon Papacy I suggest glancing at the Wikipedia biography of Antipope Benedict XIII

Maurice Druon’s The Royal Succession gives a very entertaining account of the Papal election of 1316, when,after two years of stalemate, Pope John XXII, emerged as the Vicar of Christ. How accurate it is I am not sure but it, and the 1970s television adaptation, are very entertaining.

There were good reasons why the Popes remained in Avignon for so long - it was safer than Rome or Italy, more convenient for governing the Western Church, better placed to exercise influence in European affairs, and in the thirteenth century the Popes had only been in Rome for half of the time. Nonetheless the Bishop of Rome as an absentee prelate whilst the Eternal City went to wrack and ruin was not the best image, and the idea that these French born Popes were puppets of the Kings of France gave out all the wrong impressions to Italians and to people like the English who were at war with France.

The Palais des Papes is standing there unoccupied in Avignon. Could it get a new occupant?