Wednesday, cardinals from all over the world will kidnap the Vatican Sistine Chapel to elect the next Pope in a Sub Rosa process known as Conclave.
Whoever is chosen as the next bishop of Rome and the new pontiff will face many challenges.
They include the opportunity to continue the LGBTQ + awareness launched by the late Pope Francis and if women must be allowed to become a priests and deacons.
Pope Francis made Catholics LGBTQ + welcoming a characteristic of its papacy. In 2013, he said “Who am I to judge?” Asked about a allegedly gay priest.
He also distinguished himself from his predecessors by saying that “being homosexual is not a crime”.
Pope Francis was also frank on issues such as climate change, ethics of new technologies and immigrant rights.
It is not clear if the conclave will result in a leader aligned with the more progressive position of Pope Francis or a curator who will take the church in a new direction.
But where are the main candidates for work on key questions?
Cardinal Pietro Paroline
The 70 -year -old paroline was secretary of state under Pope Francis and is a Vatican veteran respected. But despite being well versed in the diplomatic functioning of the Holy See, it has little pastoral experience and is considered a little more conservative than its former boss.
Its file on LGBTQ + problems remains conservative. In 2019, he did not succeed in renewing the condemnation by the Vatican of the criminalization of homosexual relations and spoke harshly the genre ideology, calling it “ideological colonization” and “extremely dangerous because it cancels the differences in its claim to make everyone equal”.
However, he rejected the assertion that sexual abuse among the clergy are linked to homosexuality, calling it a “serious and scientifically untenable association”.
On the climate crisis, Parolin's sight counts with those of the late Pope Francis. He said that the Vatican is committed to climate action, and even if he admits that it is a secular problem, he says that there is an “ethical and moral dimension” to the problem.
He also expressed his opposition to wars in Ukraine and Gaza, describing him as “Second World War”, but also expressed his opposition to abortion and substitution maternity, slamming the latter as “deplorable”.
Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle
Tagle, 67, is on many lists of bookmakers to be the first Asian pope, a choice that would recognize part of the world where the church develops.
Although he has a pastoral, the Vatican and management experience, some consider him too young to be elected head of the Catholic Church, because we think that the conclave would not promote an prolonged pontificate.
ADVERTISEMENTHowever, “Asian Francis” was nicknamed and should largely continue the progressive agenda of the late Pontiff.
Like Pope Francis, he was frank on the impact of climate change and also criticized the “hard” position adopted by Church personalities towards homosexuals, divorced and single mothers, pleading for a more compassionate approach to marginalized groups.
“If we consider diversity as a problem, it will be a problem,” he said in 2019.
“But if we consider diversity as a gift, where we could exchange gifts, where, in humility, let us admit what I do not have and appreciate what others have, then we will need each other. There is neutrality. There is interdependence.”
ADVERTISEMENTUnlike many cardinals, Tagle has also adopted social media, amassing more than 600,000 subscribers on Facebook and around 39,000 on X.
Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu
Ambongo, 65, one of the most frank religious leaders in Africa, is deeply attached to Catholic Orthodoxy and largely considered a curator.
He received praise from some in the Democratic Republic of Congo for promoting interconfessional tolerance and for his unshakable advocacy for social justice.
In a country with high poverty and hunger despite the rich in minerals, and where the fights by rebel groups killed thousands and moved millions in one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world, he frequently criticizes the corruption and inaction of the government, as well as the exploitation of the country's natural resources by foreign powers.
ADVERTISEMENTHe described the climate change as “moral indignation” but described the blessing of same -sex couples as “cultural colonization”.
Considered conservative on LGBTQ + problems and speaking of people attracted by the same sex, Cardinal Ambongo said: “We do not stigmatize them, but we do not encourage practice either.”
While Ambongo did not publicly support the women priests, he said that the Church in Africa had “no particular difficulty” with the idea.
Cardinal Matteo Zappi
Zappi, 69, is a candidate widely considered in the tradition of Pope Francis to serve to those on the sidelines, although his relative youth counts against him for the cardinals in search of a short curb.
ADVERTISEMENTIn a sign of his progressive tendencies, Zuppi wrote the introduction to the Italian edition of “Building A Bridge” by the Reverend James Martin, an American Jesuit, on the need of the Church to improve his awareness of the LGBTQ +community.
Zappi wrote that the construction of bridges with the community was a “difficult process, which is still going on”. He recognized that “do nothing, on the other hand, the risks causing a lot of suffering, makes people alone and often lead to the adoption of positions which are both contrasting and extreme”.
He has a vast experience of work with communities deprived of their rights and participated in several talks of world peace, including a role of chief negotiator in 1992 which led to the end of the civil war in Mozambique.
Zappi also spoke of the need for “creative peace” in Ukraine and two years ago was made of the Vatican peace for Ukraine by Pope Francis. As such, he visited Moscow to “encourage the gestures of humanity” and also had talks with President Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
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Known of his peers as a serious theologian, serious educator, ERDő, 72, is one of the main competitors among the conservatives.
He has been an archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest since 2002 and was appointed cardinal by Pope John Paul II the following year. He participated in two conclaves, in 2005 and 2013, for the selection of Pope Benoît XVI and Pope Francis.
ERDő opposes the same -sex unions and has also resisted the suggestions that Catholics who remarry after divorce can receive communion. He said in 2015 that divorced Catholics should only be authorized if they remain sexually abstinent in their new marriage.
A defender of traditional family structures, he cultivated close ties with Viktor Orbán and his controversial minister in Hungary, who recently made the headlines by prohibiting the marches of pride.
ADVERTISEMENTWhen hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers entered Europe in 2015, fleeing war and deprivation in the Middle East and Africa, Erdő stressed that the Church had a Christian duty to provide humanitarian assistance, but stopped in addition to the outright plea for migrants who was one of Pope Francis' main priorities.
