Issue 30: Did Pope Francis ‘Debug’ Catholicism? Or Will It Be Rebooted By Opus Dei?

The Vatican is facing a dilemma: push back on authoritarianism, or flow with the tide?

We’re switching up the newsletter format this time, abandoning the digest of links in favor of a longer essay on one topic, in this case the legacy of Pope Francis and the growing political influence of conservative Catholicism around the world. What do you think of the new format? Do you prefer the links digest, or were you only reading the essays anyway?

The memes will be back next time. It seemed a bit distasteful to include them here, given the pope’s current state of health.

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Pope Francis, a figure who emerged, seemingly on cue, as the Catholic Church recognized the need to address pressing issues like social inequality and climate change, has been the subject of considerable debate. His papacy could be described as an ambitious effort to bring a two-thousand-year-old institution into the 21st century. The question remains: has he truly succeeded in moving the Church towards modernity, or will his efforts be remembered as a fleeting ripple against a rising tide of traditionalism?

In 2015, Francis released Laudato Si’, an encyclical that tried to graft environmentalism onto Catholic doctrine, framing ecological collapse as a profound moral crisis. He introduced the concept of "integral ecology," highlighting the interconnectedness of the poor and the planet’s degradation, while also criticising unchecked consumerism and the "myth of progress". This was undoubtedly a bold move.

Yet the real impact of Laudato Si’ remains doubtful. While environmental groups applauded, climate skeptics (unsurprisingly) largely ignored it, and many parishioners likely viewed it as just a well-intentioned sermon among others, an ideal which ordinary people would never approach. The crucial question is whether it translated into any tangible policy shifts or concrete action on the ground. The document called for dialogue and recognized efforts to address environmental degradation. Looking at the trajectory of climate action, it’s clear that the attempt has mostly failed, alongside all other similar efforts. However this does not mean that it was not worth trying. Christ himself was mostly a failure if looked at in worldly terms.

In a similar vein, the Vatican’s 2025 report on AI, Antiqua et Nova, encouraged the development of ethical frameworks to safeguard human dignity in the age of algorithms, cautioning against viewing technology as a "neutral tool". However, the case could be made that the Church should stick to articulating timeless principles and not get involved with transient worldly matters such as recent developments in technology, however consequential they might appear to be. The counter-argument to that is: if the Church cannot show its relevance by demonstrating the practical application of timeless moral principles to our daily lives, then what actually is the use of it?

Francis' attempts to liberalize Church teachings have encountered even stronger resistance. His famous "Who am I to judge?" remark regarding LGBT Catholics (‘you are the f-ing pope, that’s who’ was probably a common sentiment in response to that question), and his openness to allowing divorced parishioners to receive communion represented incremental shifts at least in tone, if not doctrine.

Yet reforming such an ancient institution is akin to debugging legacy code: every adjustment carries the risk of crashing the entire system. A pope calling for progressive reforms goes against the inherent inertia of large, long–established organizations, exemplified by the infamous call for COBOL programmers by the U.S. government during the pandemic in 2020 - trying to get people out of retirement to debug decades-old computer systems so that unemployment benefits could be paid. An organization whose official language is Latin might be able to relate.

The lack of real pushback on the current frankly insane shenanigans at the ‘Department Of Government Efficiency’ shows that an organization which never modernizes can become terminally inert. Yet, for better or for worse, it looks unlikely that there will be an equivalent in the Catholic Church to the chainsaw-wielding (alleged) ketamine addict currently destroying the U.S. Government. Even a few mild remarks about preserving nature and accepting some level of diversity can send hardcore fundamentalists into a spin, as Francis has discovered during his papacy.

The deeper issue lies in the Church's need to appeal to younger, more progressive demographics while simultaneously preserving its core identity. It's a delicate balancing act, and Francis has, understandably, often threatened to lose his footing. He has almost certainly been the most progressive and open-minded Pope ever. However it is a pretty low bar of course.

Looking ahead, and particularly during his current apparently serious illness, the question of who will succeed Francis is paramount. The leading candidates represent factions ranging from moderate pragmatists to doctrinal hardliners. The most probable scenario is the election of a pope (a Francis ally, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, is the favorite) who maintains Francis’ rhetoric while quietly rolling back his reforms, similar to a startup CEO who retains the previous founder’s vision statement but pivots the product.

The question might be whether, with the current global shift toward authoritarianism, the Vatican decides its role is to push back (as Francis would undoubtedly favor) or to decide to stay on the side of power (as it did following the Spanish Civil War, for example, when it was in league with the Franco dictatorship, something many people in Spain have still not forgiven).

For these reasons, the most intriguing developments are occurring not in Rome but in Washington D.C.. Opus Dei, once synonymous with secrecy, and itself originally coming out of soon-to-be-Francoist Spain, now wields considerable influence through figures like J.D. Vance. This brand of Catholicism merges reactionary theology with political ambition, portraying traditionalism as a bulwark against the chaos of modernity. It is noteworthy that Vance allowed his endorsement to be used for the book “Unhumans: The Secret History of Communist Revolutions (and How to Crush Them).”, which lavishes praise on Franco.

“In the past, communists marched in the streets waving red flags. Today, they march through HR, college campuses, and courtrooms to wage lawfare against good, honest people,” Vance says in a blurb on the book’s back cover.

Vance converted to Catholicism, drawn to "its small, energetic world of conservative Catholic intellectuals, lawyers and politicians [who] prioritize its traditional views on family". This circle includes individuals such as Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito — author of the deciding opinion that overturned Roe v. Wade. Furthermore, The New Republic has linked Project 2025, led by Kevin Roberts, to the Catholic Information Center (CIC), noting that the priest in charge of the CIC is a member of Opus Dei. Leonard Leo, the Federalist Society co-chair who has led the conservative takeover of the judiciary up to the Supreme Court, also has ties to the CIC.

It's also significant that five of the six conservative justices on the Supreme Court are Catholic, with Gorsuch listed as Anglican/Catholic. This raises important questions about the influence of conservative Catholic thought in shaping legal and governmental policies in the U.S..

Opus Dei, founded in 1928 by Spanish priest Josemaria Escrivá, is not a religious order but a movement dedicated to "finding God in daily life". It was established in direct response to the Communist movements in Europe and was officially recognized by Pope Pius XII in 1950.

Its members remain in their chosen professions but use their positions to further the organization's aims. Francis, never a fan of lobbies within the broader Catholic movement, has attempted to reduce the influence of Opus Dei. However it certainly appears to be gaining traction in the United States.

The man some have called the ‘Shadow President’, Peter Thiel, also has strong ties to Opus Dei, as detailed in this article by Jules Evans:

“He was befriended by Arne Panula, a priest who ran Opus Dei’s centre in Stanford to recruit talented young men into its ranks. Opus Dei is a Spanish Catholic right-wing cult that recruits male members at universities around the world, collects vast amounts of money from them when they’re wealthy, then uses it to support hard-right political causes around the world.”

The increasing political power of conservative Catholicism is particularly noteworthy given the historical separation of church and state in the U.S.. While the Constitution guarantees this separation, apparently it can itself be ignored — as we have found out recently — if those at the top are sufficiently brazen and careless. It remains to be seen how far the hardliners are willing to go in their use of Trump as a battering ram to force their ideas — which of course do not represent the views of the vast majority of Americans — onto the national and global stages.

Pope Francis’ papacy may ultimately be remembered as a well-intentioned but incomplete experiment—a series of code updates that were never fully implemented. He nudged the Church as far as he was able toward modernity but underestimated the inertia of an institution inherently resistant to change. The key takeaway may not be about his interpretation of theology but about organizational dynamics in general: systems designed around tradition and permanence struggle to adapt, even when adaptation is essential for survival. It looks like the next chapters will not be written in encyclicals with Latin titles but in the alliances forming behind closed doors between religious tradition and the corridors of power.