The European far right is waiting for Pope Francis' succession.

LondonIn one of the key moments of the third part ofThe Godfather (1990), by Francis Ford Coppola, Cardinal Lambert utters a sentence that more or less sums up the debate the Vatican faces every time the occupant of the chair of St. Peter dies.This pope has very different ideas. He's going to clean house" ("This dad has very different ideas. He intends to put order and clean the house.")

In the context of the film, the expression "to clean house" It is a metaphor that should be read as a hammer against corruption, the intention of purging an institution with 2,000 years of history and renewing its mechanisms of power. Undoubtedly, a task proper to God, rather than to men. Lamberto, a reformer, at least as regards the material affairs of the Holy See, will come to a bad end. Like the very pope he replaces and to whom he refers with this phrase, in a nod to the mysterious death of John Paul I (1978), after thirty-three days as pontiff.

In the current geopolitical circumstances, the death of Francis, the pope who came from the end of the world to clean house, could be used either to continue the reforms – of material matters, but also doctrinal ones, which he has not touched – undertaken by Jorge Mario Bergoglio, or to turn the rudder around and make a 180-degree turn.

Bergoglio's reforms were an attempt to clean up a Church that, at the time of his election (2013), was ashamed and unhinged by the revelation of papal secrets of his predecessor, Benedict XVI, made by the papal butler in a book that detailed them with r's and uncle, and jealousy, intrigue and fighting between factions. All of this is very much in keeping with the image conveyed by the thriller Conclave, by Robert Harris, turned into an Oscar-winning film that same year.

Break or continuity

Francis also cleaned up other stains that Benedict XVI had resisted. For example: the readmission to the Church of a bishop who denied the Holocaust (the British Richard Williamson, finally excommunicated by the Argentine in 2015); the growing evidence of corruption at the Vatican Bank; and the thousands of cases of sexual abuse worldwide committed by clergy in the cone, generated by the translation of the New Roman Missal into English.

Very basically, Francis's reforms could be summarized as opening the Church to the poor and marginalized, addressing global inequalities, giving a voice to the have-nots, and putting a spotlight on those living on the periphery. The acceptance of homosexuals and trans people—"every person is a child of God; God rejects no one," Francis said, referring to her—the still timid opening of the Vatican's doors to women, and his concern for the evils of neoliberalism and the health of the Earth are other fundamental elements of his legacy.

Will it endure? Will his successor deepen it? Will the future pope continue to consider migrants as the most helpless of the helpless? Or perhaps it is the reactionary, anti-immigrant wave that, as one ghost that haunts Europe and the world, will impose its agenda?

Someone who has studied the relationship between the European far right and religion is Nicholas Morieson, a professor at Melbourne's Catholic University. He talks in the book Religion and the Populist Radical Right, where he claims that many radical right-wing populist parties in Western Europe exploit Christianity not as a "genuine religious commitment" but as a "tool of identity politics." These parties, the professor argues, invoke Christian identity and heritage not out of religious devotion, but to define and defend a "culturally exclusive identity," primarily against Islam and immigration. Christianity is thus redefined as a "cultural factor of Western or European identity, rather than as a spiritual or theological system."

A clear example of this would be the comment made on Monday on the Internet by Sílvia Orriols, the mayor of Ripoll and leader of Aliança Catalana, regarding Francis, accusing him of "promoting and applauding the Islamization of Europe via rampant immigration." Francis would call her an "infiltrator," as he said of those within the Church who demonize others. Reading, this Tuesday, some editorials from the most reactionary press in Spain, from The reason until Digital freedom, or the very brief farewell message from Santiago Abascal, leader of Vox, show that Francis was not on their side: neither in economics, nor, however, in ethical, moral and religious values.

Ideological battle

The illiberal democracies of Eastern Europe – such as Viktor Orbán's Hungary, that fights LGBTI rights– have highlighted the relationship between conservative religious values and their tenets. Political scientist Martin Stevens of Lancaster University (UK) has examined this in groups such as the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) in the European Parliament, which has become an important voice for spreading the most retrograde religious ideology within the Union. The best-known face of this group is Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, although she now passes as a moderate. This is especially true alongside the aforementioned Orbán or Mateusz Morawiecki, former Prime Minister of Poland for the Law and Justice party.

A new conservative pope—like John Paul II or Benedict XVI—could strongly resonate with the traditional values championed by parties such as the Brothers of Italy, Vox, the Polish Law and Justice party, Le Pen's National Rally, or the Hungarian Fidesz, strengthening their foundations and attacking Christian values. woke.

But the Church is not monolithic, and neither are the faithful. And despite some outright intransigence to which Francis was never open—the abortion debate, for example—the Argentine's simple and inclusive message may have resonated with European social sectors that don't feel drawn to the ultra-right slogans of these groups. The ideological battle, which is also geopolitical and is largely waged online, will experience a new assault behind the doors of the Sistine Chapel. Then the world will know who will bring order to the Vatican and how in the coming years.