“Some people are chosen to be shepherds. Others to manage the farm. You’re a manager. So manage.” Those were the last words cardinal Thomas Lawrence, played by Ralph Fiennes in the movie Conclave, heard from the pope before he died. So naturally, the day he opens the papal conclave to elect his successor, no one expects him to say anything much interesting. But Cardinal Lawrence surprises.
After the boring, obligatory opening remarks, Lawrence goes off script: “Let me speak from the heart for a moment.” Lawrence knows he’s kicking off an election already divided into camps committed to varying degrees of traditionalism. There are favorites. There are plots. And everyone thinks their candidate is the right one. So, instead of just endorsing someone, he says:
“There is one sin which I have come to fear above all others: Certainty. Certainty is the great enemy of unity. Certainty is the deadly enemy of tolerance. Even Christ was not certain at the end. ‘My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?’ he cried out in his agony at the ninth hour on the cross. Our faith is a living thing precisely because it walks hand-in-hand with doubt. If there was only certainty and no doubt, there would be no mystery—and therefore no need for faith. Let us pray that God will grant us a Pope who doubts.”
Certainty is easy. It’s comforting. And you can pick it from whichever source you like these days. For every single thing you hope to believe, there is a salesperson somewhere on the internet, praying the exact gospel you seek.
To doubt is to live in the fog. To exist between opinions rather than be made up of them. It can feel uneasy—but also liberating. As long as you keep the door open to the possibility you might be wrong, a better idea is always just one step away.
The Church, too, needs better ideas. That’s what it hopes for from every next pope. Will it be one who doubts? If every cardinal were to do so, the answer would be a guaranteed “Yes.” Elected official or not, choose doubt over certainty—for the most beautiful blossoms are usually the offspring of humble minds coming together.