What Democracies Can Learn From the Election of The New Pope — The Conclave?

Election of the new Pope has electrified the world’s attention, but what can we learn from this ancient process in this age of election campaigning, 24 hour news cycle, information overload and disinformation campaigning by malicious actors?

Catholic Church as Flag Bearer of 

Western Civilization and Its Values

After the passing of Pope Francis curious and ancient tradition of the Conclave kicks off to select a new Pope. The Catholic Church has 252 cardinals and not all will be voting, or even participating in the Conclave. As of April 30 the seventh general congregation included 181 cardinals, with 124 of the 133 voting cardinals present. Francis has personally appointed about 80% of the cardinals who will elect the next pope. Some of them are, however, very conservative or otherwise oppose Francis' reform agenda despite this. Efforts by powerful conservative Catholic groupings were reportedly well underway days before the Conclave commenced.

At the start of the procedure altogether 22 cardinals are considered papabili, those who are likely contenders for this job in Christianity. Disgraced Cardinal Becciu has been withdrawn his participation in this high level process would have surely dealt a blow to its overall legitimacy. This relief was clearly substantiated by the Vatican by releasing this statement on April 30th 2025: “… to contribute to the communion and serenity of the Conclave… Congregation of Cardinals expresses its appreciation for the gesture he has made…”.

This obstacle for legitimacy point of view has now been removed and the process can remain credible in the eyes of the world. Then there is a case of Peruvian cardinal named Cipriani, who is participating pre-conclave meetings despite allegations against him. Measures taken against him seen incredibly lax compared to any other organization handling similar cases.

Americans introduced press conference to the process last time in 2013, which was shunned, whereas Italian cardinals leaked to the press. For conservative mind introducing tools like press conferences is exactly the kind of things to avoid like nauseating ad campaigns, social media or other vulgar aspects of modern political campaigning. Humility amongst peers seems to be the name of the game: “Those who enter the conclaves as pope often leave as cardinals.”. Presenting the image of papabili is counterproductive.

Indeed the Pope and contemporary politicians share similarities to some extent: like politicians the Pope is not bound by any promise he may have made prior to his election. Campaigning overtly is discouraged and seen as counterproductive but my question is: what contemporary democratic politics can learn from this procedure, that is at the heart of what it means to be a Western Democracy in the 21st Century: the history, the traditions. To paraphrase famous historian Tom Holland we are indeed swimming in the ancient waters of Christianity, Catholicism and Judaism.

The Process is Free of Unnecessary Information Bombardment for General Public, Which is Unusual in this Era of Constant Unnecessary Information Bombardment

Certainly refreshing in this era of month-long political campaigning, ad nauseam advertising and constant political advertising bombardment of often empty slogans, is to see how low key and dignified the process of politics is from the outset. Campaigning is done among cardinals, who convince each other of the candidate who to choose. One of the pitfalls of this process is recognised, that the ignorance of other cardinals can be exploited by other charismatic influential cardinals by putting their name forward without knowing the full story of that said candidate. It is said the cardinals may or may not know each other and the conclave provides for them in a relatively sharp timeframe to get to know each other and where they are coming from in terms of key ecclesiastical positions.

Interestingly Swedish Cardinal Arborelius has cautioned observers dividing cardinals on political and ideological lines, and seems to confirm that not knowing each other generally is a “real issue” and that being a “challenge”. Of course in the 21st Century this is a striking observation as in this Century and with considerable resources of the Catholic Church one would venture, that if there is will there is a way for these high level people to do some team building? The Vatican careers office could enlist these senior gentlemen to some refresher training to meet fellow buddies when they are elected, so they could be ready as a dream team when the Pontiff dies? Well, I guess curia does not work like Fortune 500 corporations or modern nation state bureaucracy, where middle management training has been the name of the game for decades.

What Are The Key issues?

One of the key issues identified is how the future Pope deals with authoritarian regimes like China, which aim to restrict religious freedoms. China is basically let to appoint the officials by pre-vetting them — the murkiness and lack of legitimacy of this arrangement is manifested by its temporary, renewable nature and secrecy. One could easily argue, however, that the Vatican has more than millennia of experience of dealing with authoritarians like rogue kings, emperors and barbarians. List of anti-Vatican strongmen is indeed long: from Frederick II of the Holy Roman Empire in the 12th Century to Mao Zedong.

The church’s ability and willingness to adress abuse is still an open question. Above mentioned cardinal Cipriani was recently seen paying respects to Francis despite being apparently disciplined. Apparently abuse is one of the topics of Pre-Conclave discussions amongst cardinals. In modern societies organizations require background checks from people working with children and church is no exception. If You think of the Catholic Church as a brand which is a very postmodern and shallow way of seeing spiritual issues, the brand is tainted. But global Christianity is not tainted - the motorway is not bad if the drivers there act badly. The road is clear. The message is clear even if the messengers are imperfect.

Faith Should Not Be Used To Legitimize Evil, But How Would The Catholic Church Benefit From Nordic Style Transparency?

Simply put… tremendously. Just google “benefits of transparency in public institutions”. The question is: are they ready for it? Perhaps the problem lies there, that very few people outside the Nordic countries are familiar with this concept and have fully internalized its benefits for everybody involved.

The EU and the Vatican seem to share a surprising number of similarities. One example is subsidiarity. The idea is great: solving issues at the local level and not taking them to a higher level unnecessarily. The lower level usually has the best information about the case and saves a lot of time and resources. One might ask what other ways the EU has copied the Vatican's actions. It would seem that surprisingly many. This is not necessarily a good thing - the EU and the Vatican both seem to suffer from the same democratic and transparency deficit. Yet both are manifestations of what Western civilization has achieved so far.

As Christian faith teaches evil should be fought and not legitimized. This must be the task of all Christians. Parts of institutional Christianity have many times in history legitimized evil (one example here from inside Catholicism): most recently in during World War II and now currently in Russia by diabolical and completely devilish Moscow Patriachate.

Lessons Learned for Democracies

In pre-conclave gathering Rev. Donato Ogliari, abbot of St. Paul Outside the Walls, a papal basilica in Rome, emphasized the need for Catholics to “distance themselves from arrogant, harsh and authoritarian attitudes”. This is certainly good advice to politicians too, not only that it is also a right thing to do. Politicians demonstrating this quickly turn voters against them. This was clearly demonstrated for example in local elections in Finland, where the number two party of the ruling coalition suffered historical defeat precisely because of these attitudes.

The Catholic Church can be seen in many ways as a pioneer of Western democracy. For example, in monasteries, abbots have been democratically elected from among monks for centuries, and this must have served as an inspiration as the democratic system has slowly but surely gained a foothold in the West.

Outcome Came Very Fast: Leo XIV

The Conclave came to the conclusion very fast. It was the largest and most geographically diverse conclave known in history, with cardinals representing 69 countries across five countries, with greater percentages of participating cardinals from Africa, Asia and Latin America than in other recent conclaves. By contrast, 115 cardinal electors -- half of them from Europe -- participated in the 2013 conclave that elected Pope Francis. In the 2025 conclave, 43% of electors were from Europe.

With just a few rounds of voting white smoke was seen billowing from the Sistine Chapel chimney around 18:00 Rome time on the middle part of the second day May 8th 2025. Once elected, the new pope remains in Rome (the late Pope Francis never again visited his native Argentina after his selection), and his travels, along with every other facet of his life, will be carefully and prayerfully coordinated, as he is now the successor of St. Peter. Prior to the conclave, the cardinal electors met for 12 general congregations in which they shared their hopes, concerns and priorities for the church. The topics highlighted ranged widely, from evangelization, caring for the poor and addressing clergy sexual abuse, to the economy, peace-building efforts and synodality.

Cardinal Robert Prevost from United States was elected and he took name Leo XIV. The new pope was elected on the third vote of the conclave's second day, after a total of four votes. The 133 cardinal electors entered the conclave on the afternoon of May 6, with the closing doors of the Sistine Chapel broadcast live by Vatican Media. Prevost can be seen as continuing the legacy of Francis. Apart from Italian and Latin he chose to speak Spanish instead of English in his Urbi et Orbi delivery perhaps to downplay him being American. Earlier in February he shared in X article critical of JD Vance.

Therefore, we can, I’m afraid, expect a tsunami of right wing voices decrying him as “woke” from the outset, and much much worse. He is also, for an American, distinctly international with both parents being not from America. It should be noted, however, that he also has Peruvian citizenship, although his American identity is so pervasive in the world that it easily takes precedence over this information.

He has also long missionary experience, that mitigated perhaps him being from a powerful country like America. He has spent two thirds of his life outside the US. He is not, however, above criticism as this article launched just before the Conclave demonstrates. God really works in mysterious ways and through people. Pope Leo XVI’s brother explains: “... the interesting thing [is]... when he was in first grade a woman across the street… said he would be the first American pope…”.

The election of Pope Leo XIV, the first American Pope, has sparked diverse reactions. Many celebrate it as a sign of the Catholic Church's globalization, with some American Catholics expressing pride and seeing it as a fresh perspective on global issues like poverty and climate change. His experience in Latin America is also viewed positively, suggesting a bridge between regions. American ultraconservatives, Catholic extremists, and MAGA are not happy even though an American was elected. It is good to remember that Cardinal Prevost, the current Pope Leo XIV, was instrumental in Pope Francis' excommunication of the extremist Texan clergyman Joseph Strickland.

However, there are concerns about potential Western bias, which might alienate Catholics in places like Africa or Asia. Uncertainty around his stances on issues like LGBTQ+ rights and clergy abuse has also fueled debate, alongside political sensitivities due to his past criticisms of U.S. policies. Overall, reactions reflect both hope and apprehension about his leadership. It may be an exaggeration to say this, but the reactions in St. Peter's Square was mixed when you watched the reactions of the people celebrating there on TV. Few expected the choice to fall on an American. Perhaps the Americans themselves expected this least of all? Of course, at this historic moment, most people in the square were also excited and happy.

His episcopal motto is “In Illo uno unum”—words pronounced by Saint Augustine in a sermon on Psalm 127 to explain that “although we Christians are many, in the one Christ we are one”. Accordingly, he adopted the coat of arms below.