Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: Paul Swaen and I begin our coverage of the death
Speaker 2: of Francis. I should say, excuse me, Pope Francis, and
Speaker 2: what we're trying to do is bring you informed people
Speaker 2: about his life, the present and the future that we
Speaker 2: will see for the Catholic Church, and it's reached across
Speaker 2: one point four billion people worldwide. We start strong with
Speaker 2: excellence out of Fordham University, Boston College. Meghan Clark joins
Speaker 2: US now with Saint John's at University, where she does
Speaker 2: important work on moral theology, among others. Megan, thank you
Speaker 2: so much for beginning our coverage of the death of
Speaker 2: the Pope. You wrote a while back on Thomas Aquinas
Speaker 2: and you said good is to be done and pursued,
Speaker 2: and evil is to be avoided. How permanent is the
Speaker 2: the method, the process, the pastoral effort of Pope Francis
Speaker 2: or do you look at it as a one off
Speaker 2: pope versus what the future would bring.
Speaker 3: I think that Pope Francis, I don't think anyone it's
Speaker 3: wise to call him a one off in terms of
Speaker 3: the impact that he had on both the Roman Catholic
Speaker 3: Church and the world.
Speaker 1: What Pope Francis.
Speaker 3: Really showed us is how to take the method of
Speaker 3: Vatican two and really globalize it and live it in
Speaker 3: ways that inspired billions of people.
Speaker 2: Do we understand how unique he was? I've always thought
Speaker 2: from a distance from a church that we really don't
Speaker 2: understand the moment there where he took over from Pope Benedict.
Speaker 2: How unique was it was. I believe thirteen twelve years ago.
Speaker 3: We knew something was a little bit different when he
Speaker 3: came out in all white and insisted that before he
Speaker 3: give the Audi the Square his blessing, that.
Speaker 1: He asked everyone to pray for him.
Speaker 3: I think that every pope is a little bit unique,
Speaker 3: and they bring all of their life experience and their
Speaker 3: challenges and their gifts and their graces. But there is
Speaker 3: something about Pope Francis's humility and humanity that just deeply
Speaker 3: connected with people.
Speaker 2: Megan.
Speaker 4: Now, the Catholic Church and the Holy See and the
Speaker 4: cardinals they turn their attention to electing a new pope.
Speaker 4: What are the pools and pushes in that we're going
Speaker 4: to see over the coming days.
Speaker 1: So it's going to.
Speaker 3: Take a while, and Pope Francis will have all of
Speaker 3: the papal funeral process, and a whole lot of people
Speaker 3: have to get to.
Speaker 1: Rome before they will begin a conclave.
Speaker 3: But really the most important thing for everyone in that
Speaker 3: room is going to be really trying to figure out
Speaker 3: and pray where is the Holy Spirit guiding them to
Speaker 3: really figure out what the church needs? And that's you know,
Speaker 3: we're here in the United States, but it's a global church,
Speaker 3: and so kind of what we think of here often
Speaker 3: as kind of the big issues aren't always the big
Speaker 3: issues for the cardinals coming from places like Congo or
Speaker 3: Al Salvador or all across the world.
Speaker 4: And Megan, you know, the Catholic Church, the Holy see
Speaker 4: it is not unlike or not too dissimilar to a
Speaker 4: lot of countries around the world where there are profound
Speaker 4: liberal elements of the church and profound conservative elements of
Speaker 4: the church. To what extent will they have to, I guess,
Speaker 4: agree on electing a next pope who was maybe the
Speaker 4: upper hand?
Speaker 2: Do you think.
Speaker 3: I think the realities the majority of the College of
Speaker 3: Cardinals were elevated to the status of cardinal by Pope
Speaker 3: Francis at this point, and so I think that's going
Speaker 3: to be something that because he has been pope for
Speaker 3: for quite time. I think the reality of how to
Speaker 3: continue the level of engagement globally, not just of kind
Speaker 3: of church leaders, but of the people that happened over
Speaker 3: the last two three years with the Synod, you had
Speaker 3: really mobilizing and conversations starting in every small diocese across
Speaker 3: the world. And so I think there is going to
Speaker 3: be attention to continuing this to be a listening church,
Speaker 3: as Pope Francis has tried to show us how to
Speaker 3: be to be a listening Megan.
Speaker 2: Clerk at Saint John's with this as we continue our
Speaker 2: coverage of Markets Challenged this morning, looking to the events
Speaker 2: in Washington as well, and also the death of Pope Francis.
Speaker 2: Megan Clark again out of Fordham in Boston College, just
Speaker 2: with very early work, her book The Vision of Catholic
Speaker 2: Social Thought was profound in twenty fourteen. Megan, as simple
Speaker 2: as I can, this is a pope that had to
Speaker 2: deal with social media. I go back through my childhood,
Speaker 2: pauled all of us in our experience, these are popes
Speaker 2: that moved its slow motion. How does the Catholic Church
Speaker 2: and your study of its theology, how does it change
Speaker 2: in a world of.
Speaker 3: Social media, it has to be more responsive and more
Speaker 3: visibly present in ways it didn't have to before. And
Speaker 3: I think we saw that with Pope Francis's attention to
Speaker 3: the environment.
Speaker 1: He really focused our.
Speaker 3: Attention most on the environment, on the plight of migrants
Speaker 3: around the world, and did that. He knew how to
Speaker 3: do that by both what he said, but also where
Speaker 3: he went and who he met with, and he would
Speaker 3: go to the people in places and so things.
Speaker 1: Like his first visit was to migrants at Lampadusa.
Speaker 3: Was something that was a pastoral choice to do, but
Speaker 3: it also was in a global media world, something that
Speaker 3: was astute.
Speaker 2: Okay, But his parents were Italian, he was in Argentina,
Speaker 2: the first pope since the fifteenth century I believe to
Speaker 2: be outside of the Italian European orbit. You're saying that
Speaker 2: it is now entrenched with his work of twelve years.
Speaker 3: I think the institutional changes that Pope Francis made, as
Speaker 3: well as the pastoral message of really focusing our attention
Speaker 3: on the margins of society and the world and on
Speaker 3: the need to protect our common home are They were
Speaker 3: priorities before.
Speaker 1: For Asis, but he moved them to the center.
Speaker 3: And I think that that's that's something that's going to
Speaker 3: stick around.
Speaker 1: Megan.
Speaker 4: Is there a front runner to be the next pope?
Speaker 4: Is there maybe a geographic part of the world that
Speaker 4: maybe needs to show leadership?
Speaker 3: I think that there's really no way. I'm a scholar
Speaker 3: and uh, theo logan.
Speaker 1: So I'm not going to.
Speaker 3: I'm not I'm not going to play into the politics.
Speaker 3: I will say that, you know, with Pope Francis, the
Speaker 3: Holy Spirit certainly surprised everybody.
Speaker 1: So we will see.
Speaker 2: Megan, that was beautifully answered, and I'm sure that had
Speaker 2: a compliance at Saint John's University. Is in of your
Speaker 2: ability to dodge Pole's difficult question? Uh? Meghan, what what? What?
Speaker 2: To me? Is so interesting? Thank you so much for
Speaker 2: forgetting our coverage of this process, if you will, of
Speaker 2: the Catholic Church, we all have our image but one
Speaker 2: of them is a recent movie. Did you see Conclave?
Speaker 1: I did? I did?
Speaker 2: How often?
Speaker 1: Mark was it?
Speaker 2: Professor?
Speaker 3: Well, Hollywood always takes its liberties. But the thing that
Speaker 3: I will say about that movie is that I do
Speaker 3: think you get a sense of the difficulty that lays
Speaker 3: before the Cardinals in the coming weeks, as well as
Speaker 3: everything else aside everybody who will be in that room
Speaker 3: to determine who will lead my church. It is going
Speaker 3: to be people who in goodwill are prayerfully trying to
Speaker 3: figure out who is the best, because it's not about ideologies,
Speaker 3: it's not about positions theological or political. You know, you're
Speaker 3: you're electing a person and the person that Khem sorry him,
Speaker 3: Mario Burgoglio had had the grace to lead the church.
Speaker 1: Really powerfully and beautifully.
Speaker 3: One of the highlights, most important moments of my life
Speaker 3: is getting to meet Pope Francis after working on a
Speaker 3: project in twenty twenty two, and.
Speaker 1: You know, there.
Speaker 3: There is just something that was communicated by just being
Speaker 3: around a holy man that yeah, they got to try
Speaker 3: and figure out who has the grace and the strength
Speaker 3: and the.
Speaker 2: Clarks thank you so much. We hope we can call
Speaker 2: on you in the next coming days. A full bite
Speaker 2: scholar out of Fordham and Boston College and now at
Speaker 2: Saint John's University,