Return to the centre: Liturgy as the key to the next Conclave

On the eve of a new Conclave, the wave of analysis, pressures, and agendas from outside is inevitable. The mainstream media, which for years have ignored or ridiculed the Church, now rush to set the pace: to talk about politics, sex, power, administration. As if the Conclave were an assembly of technocrats, as if the cardinals were managers of a company that needs to modernize its image.

But the Conclave is not an electoral process or a distribution of offices. It is an act of profound spiritual discernment. And if the cardinals allow themselves to be swept away by the world's urgent needs—some real, others imposed—they run the risk of forgetting what is most important: the centre of faith.

The Church is not revitalized from the margins but from the heart. And that heart is the liturgy, especially the celebration of the Holy Mass. Everything is decided there. Faith is taught, hope is sustained, love is nourished. Without a living, reverent, clear liturgy centered on the mystery, no renewal is possible.

Today, that liturgy is in crisis. Not in books or documents, but in everyday reality. Empty churches, disorderly celebrations, irrelevant or downright profane music, homilies without content, signs without soul. The sacred has been replaced by the functional, the eternal by the anecdotal. Many bishops do not celebrate with faith. Many priests celebrate out of inertia, in haste, without depth. And the people of God, increasingly, stop going to confession and Mass because they do not find there what their souls seek.

This is not a question of external forms, but of a fundamental spiritual question: do we truly believe that Christ is present in the Eucharist? Do we believe that the Sacrifice of Calvary is renewed? Do we believe that God gives himself entirely to us there? If we believe this, then we must celebrate it in a way that shows. If we don't, everything falls apart.

This is the topic that cannot be missed in the pre-Conclave period. This is the debate that cannot be replaced by any other. Because placing the Mass at the centre is not a pastoral choice; it is the very essence of Catholicism. The Pope who is elected receives a mandate, not a blank check. And that mandate cannot ignore the urgency of restoring the liturgy to its central place, its beauty, its transformative power.

The Cardinals must speak about many things, yes. But this is the first. It is not about looking back, or fleeing the world. It is about looking at the centre, which is Christ made bread. If the next pontificate does not begin there, everything else will be soulless reform, fruitless change.

Amid the noise, may the Holy Spirit lead you back to the silence of the altar.

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