Catholic Church faces ideological crossroad after Pope Francis’ death — The Washington Times

The Catholic Church enters a solemn but decisive chapter after Pope Francis’ death at age 88 on Easter Monday, which could reshape the direction of its global mission and doctrinal tone.

The church now prepares for one of the most globally diverse and ideologically charged conclaves in history to choose a new pope.

Currently, 135 cardinals younger than 80 are eligible to vote in the coming election. The vast majority were appointed by Francis himself. He elevated 79% of voting-age cardinals, many of them from underrepresented corners of the Catholic world: the “global south,” small island nations and remote dioceses with no prior history of Vatican influence.

In the coming weeks, 120 of the electorate-eligible cardinals will enter the Sistine Chapel to begin the solemn and secretive task of electing the next pope. The conclave must begin within 20 days of the pontiff’s death.

“It’s going to be really interesting this time because, unlike sometimes in the past, I don’t think there’s an obvious forerunner,” Rebecca Rist, professor of medieval history at Britain’s University of Reading, told The Washington Times.

“For example, when John Paul II died, you know, Benedict had already been very important in his courier. And a lot of people thought he would be the next pope. And of course, he was. This time … not as much,” she said.

Even so, interested parties are speculating.

“There are strong cultural currents within Catholicism that shape the way [cardinals] understand their mission and purpose,” Mathew Schmalz, professor of religious studies at the College of the Holy Cross, told The Times. “And the cardinals, particularly those based outside Rome, are deeply sensitive to the concerns of their local constituencies.”

Some Catholics are calling for a step back from what they see as the upheaval of recent years.

Francis often frustrated conservative Catholics with his pastoral tone and reform-minded agenda. By restricting the traditional Latin Mass and offering a more welcoming stance toward LGBTQ Catholics and the divorced, he took an approach that critics said blurred doctrinal lines and unsettled long-standing norms.

“Our God may be a God of surprises, but just now my sense is that we need much less that’s novel, interesting and ‘surprising,’ much more that is plain, solid and sane,” Catholic commentator Robert Royal wrote in The Catholic Thing.

Other Catholics resisted the idea of Francis as a “progressive pope.”

“Francis was extremely traditional. And I think it’s a misunderstanding to say that he was not traditional. There is nothing he said that challenged doctrine in the least,” said Phyllis Zagano, adjunct professor of religion at Hofstra University.

“And so I think that the church, in its wisdom, will elect a pope who will carry forth the teachings of the Catholic Church,” she said. “I think what upsets some people is a feeling that Catholic Social Teaching is a political comment on specific countries or specific actions, but Catholic Social Teaching is simply the explanation of the Gospel.”

Francis’ views on migration, in particular, put him at odds with the Trump administration. In February, the pontiff wrote a letter to U.S. bishops excoriating the White House immigration policies and calling deportation efforts a “major crisis.”

“The act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness,” he wrote in the letter.

Regardless of Francis’ political inclinations, or lack thereof, some expect his successor to nudge the church back toward the ideological center.

“Whoever is elected will be of a centrally conservative disposition, after 12 years of Pope Francis ‘stirring things up,’” Serenhedd James, editor of Britain’s Catholic Herald magazine, told the New York Post. “I think the cardinals will want someone who will take a different, calmer approach.”

Others say the church will continue down the ideological path of Francis.

“The church is becoming more global and less centered on Rome as ‘running’ everything,” David Gibson, director of the Center on Religion and Culture at Fordham University, told Newsweek. “I think it unlikely that you will get the pope-as-policeman that some on the American right seem to want.”

The conclave changes are indeed geographic. In 2013, when Francis was elected, European cardinals made up 57% of the electorate. Today, they comprise just 39%. Latin America, Africa and Asia have steadily risen in influence.

This shift may slow the next conclave.

“It’s possible that … many of the men gathering to elect the next pope will be strangers to one another,” The Pillar reported last year.

Several front-runners have emerged from progressive and traditionalist wings of the Church.

Among the progressive-leaning candidates is Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of the Philippines, 67, a theologian and former Vatican official often described as the “Asian Pope Francis.” He has called for a more inclusive Catholic Church and spoken openly about the need to welcome divorced and LGBTQ Catholics. His election would mark the first papacy from Asia.

Also in the mix is Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, 66, of France. He is reportedly Francis’ “favorite” cardinal to succeed him.

Vatican analyst Giuseppe Masciullo has called him a “dangerous contender” for the papacy. He said Cardinal Aveline “is particularly appreciated” in left-wing ecclesiastical and political camps and supports “strong decentralization” for the church, according to the New York Post.

From the more conservative camp, Cardinal Robert Sarah of Guinea, 78, has long been one of the most forceful voices for tradition. He has called for a return to Latin Mass and criticized what he views as theological drift under Pope Francis.

Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu of Congo, 65, is also seen as a conservative contender. He leads the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar and has been a vocal critic of the Vatican’s move to allow same-sex blessings.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, 70, of Italy, the Vatican secretary of state, represents the centrist establishment. He is considered a continuity candidate who might dial back some of Francis’ boldness while maintaining his foreign policy legacy.

Other names in the mix include Cardinal Matteo Zuppi of Italy, a Francis confidant known for leading peace talks in Ukraine; Cardinal Peter Erdo of Hungary, a doctrinally rigid intellectual; Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith of Sri Lanka, who opposes same-sex marriage and supports Latin liturgy; and Cardinal Odilo Scherer of Brazil, a moderate with experience in Vatican finance.

Cardinal Ranjith, 77, archbishop of Colombo, Sri Lanka, is seen as a particularly viable candidate because his region of the world is experiencing profound Catholic growth.

Another contender, physician and theologian Cardinal Willem Jacobus Eijk, 71, of the Netherlands, is drawing attention. He is an accomplished administrator and opposes blessings for same-sex couples and “gender therapy.”

Even with competing ideologies, the cardinals must elect a pope who will match Francis’ accessibility while perhaps softening his pace of change, some experts said.

“In terms of public relations, it would not be good to have a very distant and regal pontiff,” Mr. Schmalz told The Times. “So, someone who’s a man of the people … but someone who engages with others a little bit differently than Pope Francis is what I would expect. If they don’t, the conclave could be a very long time.”

Either way, Ms. Zagano said, the church shouldn’t expect the next pope to skew one way or another, politically, in any obvious sense.

“In the Navy, they say: ‘Steer your own course, but stay within the fleet.’ In the same way, there are certain parameters that you simply cannot go beyond and still be Catholic,” she said. “I don’t think we will receive a pope who can be labeled ‘conservative’ or ‘liberal’ or anything. We’ll receive a pope who is ‘Catholic.’”

Inside the Sistine Chapel during the conclave (derived from the Latin “cum clave,” meaning “with key”), cardinals will cast up to four ballots a day. If no candidate receives the required two-thirds majority after 30 rounds, the voting narrows. Only the top two candidates remain eligible, and the electors must choose between them until one emerges with the necessary support to become the next bishop of Rome.

Francis, the first pope from the Americas and a champion of the peripheries, was hospitalized in February for more than a month in critical condition with a complex lung infection and kidney complications.

Doctors placed him on high levels of oxygen, and blood tests showed “early, slight kidney insufficiency.” The Vatican confirmed his death Monday morning and later said he died of a stroke that led to heart failure.

Just hours before his death, the pope met with Vice President J.D. Vance and made a final appearance to bless the Easter crowds at St. Peter’s Basilica.