The Cardinals, who travelled to Rome to elect their next Pope in Conclave next week, can sometimes appear ideologically biased, like many secular voters around the world.
At first glance, they appear to be split along the types of left and right lines that characterize political contests elsewhere. Many conservative Roman Catholic leaders opposed Pope Francis, who was the beloved of liberals around the world.
However, the typical division of progressive and conservatives does not respond very well to the ideological battles within the Vatican and the wider church. There are several exceptions between the Cardinals, but the issues that Francis most consistently marked as a liberal do not necessarily highlight him as the Catholic Church made the call for gospel shelter a fundamental Tenet.
Ultimately, Cardinals' choice corresponds to a referendum on whether to expand Francis's inclusiveness and openness legacy of change. Anna Rowlands, a political theologian at Durham University in England, said that was “the way he meant living in a very polarized era.”
“What is at stake in polarization?” Professor Roland said, and was willing to accept differences as a precursor to dialogue. “The danger is moving at the moment when the church may be tempted to choose a pole,” she said.
More than a single question, the next Pope's choice is governed by philosophical questions.
decision making
Francis often argued that regular practice of Catholics, including women and LGBTQ people, should be consulted about the direction of the church. He invited him to sit with the bishop and discuss controversial issues at a Vatican meeting called the Synods.
He was opposed by more conservative leaders who might want to go back to centralized decision-making. “I think the conversation has to go along the line: 'Can we get away by stopping that?”
Another important division is between those who believe that the church should welcome everyone, including those who do not align with traditional church teachings, and those who believe that only those who are committed to unwavering Catholic doctrine should be recognized in the fold of the church.
“It's a big vision for the church, sometimes a source of tension and anxiety,” said Pastor Agbonkianmege E. Orobeter, dean of the Jesuit School of Theology at Santa Clara University. “When you think of the Church as a perfect society, or when you think of it as a society where membership is defined by doctrinal loyalty or Orthodoxism, that is very different.”
Church woman
Two years ago, Francis allowed women to vote at a critical meeting of the Bishop for the first time. Last year he punted on a decision on whether a woman could be ordained as a butler who could preach and preside over weddings, funerals, and baptism.
Although it was clear that Francis wanted women to allow more options than “altar girls and charity presidents,” he resisted the notion that they needed to participate in the church hierarchy. In many places where there is a shortage of priests, women are increasingly working to serve the congregation.
Conservatives say allowing women to become butlers creates a path for women to become priests in the end. They argue that despite what some experts say is historical evidence that women acted as deacons in the early church, doing so would violate the doctrine of the two,000 years.
Even if the ordination of women continues to controversy among the cardinals, it is difficult to completely suppress the debate due to pressure from female Catholic activists.
In an interview last month, Tokyo's archbishop Tarticio Aizao Kikuchi said, “There is nothing wrong with ordaining a woman as butlers.” But he said, “There are still a lot of problems that need to be overcome.”
Married priest
There is a shortage of priests in many countries in the church. In 2019, at a summit of Roman Catholic bishops, Francis recommended that he be allowed to serve as a priest in remote Amazon regions where shortages are particularly severe.
A year later, Francis said he needed more time to consider the groundbreaking proposal, and that the church still decided that it was not ready to lift the restrictions that were about 1,000 years ago and require the priest to be single, single men. Many of his supporters, who expected him to be the Pope of radical change, felt disappointed.
divorce
On the issue of divorced and remarried Catholics, Francis urged the priests not to treat them like pariahs, but to welcome them with the “doors open wide.”
Francis opened a debate over whether divorced and remarried Catholics would be allowed to receive communion, even if there were no prior marriages undecided by the ecclesian courts. But in the end he retreated from the changes in the laws of the church, simply encouraging priests to welcome divorced and remarried Catholics.
“Those who started a new union after the defeat of the Sacramental marriage are not excommunicated at all, and they should never be treated that way,” Francis said. “Their union is contrary to the sacrament of marriage, but the church as a mother seeks the goodness and salvation of all her children.”
Sexual orientation
Pope Francis took us through a new era of LGBTQ Catholics in 2023 when priests allowed them to celebrate same-sex couples. He revealed that marriage is reserved for relationships between women and men, but his changes still shocked the outrage of conservatives, especially in Africa and North America.
In Africa and other countries where homosexuality is a crime, Francis explicitly condemned the crime, but the bishops of Africa allowed priests to forbidden the blessings of same-sex couples. In a culture that denounced gay relationships, clergy were given “a long period of idyllic reflection,” and the new path Francis always insisted was not inconsistent with the teachings of the Church.
Sexual abuse
Some church hierarchies may want to declare a crisis of sexual abuse by Catholic priests. However, abuse survivors and activists warn that practices and mentality in local parishes have not changed enough to prevent future cases or that they have not changed enough to address the pain of existing cases.
A statement from the Vatican news agency on Friday said that as Cardinals argued that sexual abuse in the church is “harmed” so that recognition of the issue can remain alive and identify specific paths for its healing.”
The biggest revelation is concentrated in the United States, Australia and Europe. But in most parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America, “it continues to ring because there's not much going on yet,” said Miles Patenden, a historian studying the Catholic Church at Oxford University.
Global South
The Catholic Church's biggest growth areas are Africa and Asia. Cardinals selecting the next Pope are debating with certainty whether to choose someone from any of those regions. Anyone they choose must consider not only a spiritual heritage, but also a surge in culture and traditions among new followers. Some have different expectations about how faith plays in their lives and how they should respond to the rules.
Whether the new Pope comes from those regions or not, he must be “someone ready to speak to the injustice that exists in the global North-global South relationship in global politics,” said Nora Kofognotera Nontera, theological ethicist at the Science and Technology Technology University of Kwame Nkulma, Ghana. “The Pope cannot escape from it in the 21st century.”
As the church recruits new followers, it is necessary to find a way to talk to the youngest members. “Young people are no longer interested in taking orders and dealing with orders,” Dr. Nontera said. “They want to ask questions and they want to be asked questions.”
