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FOLLOWING THE DEATH of Pope Francis yesterday, there is inevitable speculation about who will follow in his footsteps and what issues will be important to the next pope.
However, only time, and the conclave will tell if the next pope will build on Francis’s more progressive agenda, or represent a return to more traditionalist values.
The late Pope Francis was outspoken about an array of issues, from abortion and LGBTQ+ rights, to climate change and immigration.
Electing a new pope can be as much a political balancing act, determining who will champion the issues relevant to the church, as it is a spiritual exercise.
The divide is generally between that of progressive, or liberal, and traditionalist, or conservative.
Progressives/liberals would favour reforms to the church’s attitude toward cultural and social issues. While traditionalists/conservatives would oppose those reforms in favour of creating even stricter norms or maintaining the status quo.
Some of the issues facing the Catholic Church upon which their leaning will be judged include climate change, migration, abortion, and LGBTQ+ rights.
Other issues, such as dealing with clerical sex abuse are also seen as an important barometer of a pope’s outlook.
Colm O’Gorman said that Pope Francis’s handling of the scandal was “disappointing,” despite an “enormous respect” for the late Pope.
Below are a few of the issue areas which may affect the next pope, and Pope Francis’s legacy in these issues.
There is a moral imperative to address climate change and take action, according to the Catholic Church.
Pope Francis wrote an encyclical, Laudato Si, which recognised climate change as a global problem with significant consequences, especially for the global poor. During his papacy, he declared the science is clear, and there is a moral imperative to take action.
More traditionalist priests are likely to may maintain the moral imperative to care for all of God’s creation, though they may not see the same urgency to address the issue.
The Catholic Church would view migration as recognising the inherent dignity of every person, and addressing the root causes that lead to migration.
A top priority for Pope Francis was to advocate for vulnerable migrants. He denounced the border initiatives from US president Donald Trump, and brought asylum-seekers to the Vatican with him from overcrowded island camps.
He visited and prayed at places where people perished crossing borders.
A more traditionalist pope may emphasise the importance of national sovereignty and cultural identity while also recognising the inherent dignity of every human being.
Pope Francis arguably did more for LGBTQ+ issues than any other pope in history, according to a prominent US priest.
He moved away from the stigmatising language that the Vatican has used in the past around LGBTQ+ people. He also formally signed off on allowing Catholic priests to bless same-sex couples in December 2023.
Pope Francis also called for the Church to apologise for the harm it has caused to the LGBTQ+ community, and said: “We Christians have to apologise for so many things, not just for this [treatment of gay people], but we must ask for forgiveness, not just apologise.”
It’s not clear if a more traditionalist pope could resend the actions taken by Pope Francis, but the next pope may not continue in the same direction and make as many progressive moves.
The Catholic Church views abortion as gravely wrong, and the late pope was consistent with the Church’s view, maintaining that abortion is “murder” and a “grave sin.”
Though he granted priests the right to forgive an abortion in 2015.
He was also against surrogacy, calling it “deplorable”, as he sees it as an “exploitation of women” and “objectification of children.
Other issues, like women’s rights in the church were left largely unaddressed by the late pope.
In a statement yesterday following the Pope’s death, the Catholic Women’s Ordination said: “[Pope Francis] was not afraid to enter the political arena where he saw injustice.”
The organisation added that it was “extraordinary” that his “revolutionary thinking” did not extend to women. “Women seeking sacramental ordination in the Catholic Church have been rejected,” it said.
Though Pope Francis also appointed more women than ever before to top Vatican positions.
Despite the advancements, the church’s male-dominated structure remains intact, and women’s ordination continues to be off the table.
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That’s the second non-national TikTok import trying it on with remote working demands. The Govt issued non-EU work visas for them and yet they wanted to not turn up in their contracted places of employment but stay in their pyjamas while Irish kids cant get a place of their own. Byelorussian and Turkish expats more important.
@Carmel Toe aka Luas Vuitton – Dublin Drag Queen: showing up to work usually helps with getting a place to live.
How progressive can a Pope actually be? Francis had the temerity to say a few nice platitudes about gays and refugees and the convservative media are busy making out as if was a pinko liberal.
Like it or not, the catholic church shouldn’t change in line progressive liberal values. If it is what it says it is, the true, ancient church of the eternal god (im not a Catholic fyi) then it should remain the same. And surely they don’t think that staying the same would be the end of them? Do they have no faith in their own church? And of course, perhaps sticking to tradition could be their success in the long run; people flocking to them for their lack of innovation. Or they remain in less numbers catering to a smaller number of followers and remaining as an option for those seeking something authentic/ancient. Who knows. If they are to go down, they should go out their way.
@James MC: actually to add to that, they should revert back to the latin mass and and married clergy. This would solve alot of their problems. The orthodox Church is thriving, in particular in America for reasons of tradition, married clergy and authenticity.
Hopefully progressive enough to end the slaughter in Middle East.
@Eoghan O Sullivan: I don’t think the Catholic Church really cares about the ethnic cleansing or murder of Christians in Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and Azerbaijan, etc. They are Orthodox Christians, so Catholics regard them as heretical.
@Fran Ken: probably not wrong
@Fran Ken: you may very well be right, but if there was anything or anyone that could influence Don&Bens collective destruction and Murder across the Gaza I’d welcome it. War crime after war crime as Americans and Israelies watch on, unable to get them to stop.
@Fran Ken: thank you for the wonderful insights into Catholic theology. Do you give lectures online at all?
If progressives get the Vatican to change the rules, fine. But the church may split. (I could not care less) I cannot wait for them to finish up with the vatican and move on to the Mullahs to bring them up to code.
@Oh Mammy: i see you’re being preloaded zionist propaganda manafacturing a war with iran. I guess we will bomb the veils off Iranian women’s heads?
@James MC: you have some imagination or very bad weed
@Oh Mammy: how have you managed to comment on this article about the mullahs, for any other reason than you being exposed to propaganda? Ireland is a traditionally a Catholic country and we have maybe a handful of Iranian shiia families in Ireland. Your comment is completely unrelated. Are iran not the greatest belligerent to israel? Do media in the west not propagate ideals interests? Why can’t you wait for Irish people to turn their criticism to the mullahs?
“Progressive versus traditionalist” is an oxymoron in this context.
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