Rawdogging the Conclave
Mainstream media is not sure how to report on the Papal conclave: How can I tell? Because CBS said, on the air, that the cardinals choosing the next Pope are “rawdogging” the conclave—as in, they are barred from using their phones or any other electronic devices. (“Rawdogging” is slang for, uh, lots of things, and has recently been used to describe simply enduring something with no preparation, no aids, no devices; i.e. one can “rawdog” a flight by just staring out the window.)
I should hope the cardinals aren’t “scrolling Instagram” as the CBS commentator suggests; it’s a holy time of discernment. It would be such a dereliction of duty to tune out and turn your mind over to the control of the algorithm.
https://t.co/B7CRn10Ler pic.twitter.com/a7BITgLQFN
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) May 7, 2025
For a much more informed take on the conclave, consider Bishop Robert Barron’s observation that Catholics are yearning for a “quiet papacy” (in contrast to a “heroic” papacy).
Barron cites theologian John Henry Newman, who argued that the Pope is not so much a player, but a referee in the life of the Church. Monks and mystics “live out the liturgical life of the church, the prayerful life of the church”; you have people doing the “corporal works of mercy”—tending to the poor and needy; but the role of the Pope is to be the “adjudicator of disputes.” Barron notes that this is contra many people’s expectations, but “there’s some instinct for the Newmanesque understanding of the papacy.” This is the type of observation and forecasting CBS could focus on: taking the church’s role seriously, as there are some 60 million adherents in the U.S. alone, and not attempting to dumb it down or put it in TikTok slang terms. People can handle seriousness.
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