What Makes a Pope a Man?

More important, however, is the issue of ambition for the Church. The self-consciously progressive and traditionalist factions have ambitions for the entire Church beyond the aggrandizement of their own station in the Curia. Cardinal Tremblay is a self-seeker, but Bellini and Tedesco are “true believers” in their respective causes. If there really is significant division in the Church (does anyone doubt that there is?), then this type of ambition—on both sides—is a clear danger: the See of Peter does not make the Church the plaything of the pope, and it should not be treated as if it does.