Internewscast Journal
  • Home
  • US News
  • Local News
  • Health
  • People
  • Guest Post
  • Support Our Cause
Internewscast Journal
  • Home
  • US News
  • Local News
  • Health
  • People
  • Guest Post
  • Support Our Cause
Home Local news What Unresolved Issues Will the Next Pope Inherit After Pope Francis’ 12-Year Tenure?
  • Local news

What Unresolved Issues Will the Next Pope Inherit After Pope Francis’ 12-Year Tenure?

    Pope Francis left unfinished business after a 12-year papacy. What challenges await the next pope?
    Up next
    Police investigating a car accident involving children in Osaka, Japan.
    Car Intentionally Drives Into Group of School Children in Japan, Injuring at Least Seven
    Published on 04 May 2025
    Author
    Internewscast
    Tags
    • 12year,
    • After,
    • await,
    • Business,
    • Challenges,
    • Francis,
    • George Pell,
    • Gervase Ndyanabo,
    • James Martin,
    • left,
    • Maria Lia Zerbino,
    • next,
    • papacy,
    • Peter Isely,
    • pope,
    • Pope Benedict XVI,
    • Pope Francis,
    • Religion,
    • Rodney Muhumuza,
    • Steven Millies,
    • The,
    • unfinished,
    • What,
    • world news
    Share this @internewscast.com
    FacebookXRedditPinterest

    VATICAN CITY – Throughout his 12-year papacy, Pope Francis achieved significant milestones but also left behind numerous unresolved issues and many hurdles for the next pope to address. These include the Vatican’s troubled finances, ongoing conflicts across various continents, and traditionalist dissatisfaction with his restrictions on the old Latin Mass.

    As the conclave’s cardinals complete their voting beneath Michelangelo’s frescoed Sistine Chapel ceilings, the 267th pope will face the choice of either maintaining, modifying, or completely abandoning Francis’ initiatives. The new pope will need to determine whether to focus on priorities such as migrants, environmental issues, and the social justice causes Francis supported, or shift attention to different concerns.

    Among the challenges facing the new pope:

    The role of women

    Pope Francis notably advanced the inclusion of women in leadership roles within the Vatican more than any of his predecessors. The incoming pope will need to decide whether to uphold and further this progress or to revise and take a different path.

    The issue isn’t minor. Catholic women do much of the church’s work in schools and hospitals and are usually responsible for passing the faith to the next generation. But they have long complained of second-class status in an institution that reserves the priesthood for men.

    Some are voting with their feet.

    Nuns are leaving in droves, either through attrition or simply quitting, leading to questions about the future of female religious orders.

    The Vatican says the number of nuns globally has been hemorrhaging about 10,000 per year for over a decade, with their numbers at 599,229 at the end of 2022, the last year for which there are statistics. In 2012, there were 702,529 nuns globally.

    The new pope will have to address women’s expectations for not only a greater say in church governance, but greater recognition.

    “We are the great majority of the people of God,” said Maria Lia Zerbino, an Argentine named by Francis to advise the Vatican on bishop nominations, a first for a woman. “It’s a matter of justice. It’s not an achievement of feminism, it’s in the church’s interest.”

    Women’s Ordination Conference, which advocates for female priests, goes further. “The exclusion of women from the conclave, and from ordained ministry, is a sin and a scandal,” it said.

    Gervase Ndyanabo, a prominent lay leader in Uganda, said there should be more participation of the laity and women in the administration of parishes and decision-making at all levels. Progress, he said, has come “at a snail’s speed.”

    Polarization of progressives and traditionalists

    An anonymous letter circulated among Vatican officials in 2022, highlighting what it called Francis’ “disastrous” pontificate and what a new pope must do correct the “catastrophe” he had wrought. Its author was Australian Cardinal George Pell, but that fact emerged only after his death in 2023. Once a close adviser to Francis but always conservative, Pell grew increasingly disillusioned with his papacy, signing the letter with the pen name, “Demos” — the common people.

    Last year, a screed by another anonymous cardinal circulated, signed by “Demos II.” It resumed where Pell left off, denouncing what it called Francis’ “autocratic, at times seemingly vindictive style of governance; a carelessness in matters of law; an intolerance for even respectful disagreement; and – most seriously – a pattern of ambiguity in matters of faith and morals causing confusion among the faithful.”

    It blamed polarization in the church on the confusion Francis had sown and urged the next pope to focus on “recovery and reestablishment of truths that have been slowly obscured or lost among many Christians.”

    Those letters underscored the age-old divisions between traditionalists and progressives in the Catholic Church that were exacerbated during Francis’ pontificate. He emphasized inclusion and “synodality,” or listening to the faithful, and cracked down on traditionalists by restricting their celebration of the old Latin Mass. While the conservatives may not have enough votes to elect one of their own, a new pope will have to try to restore unity.

    The polarization is keenly felt in the United States, where anyone using social media can challenge the Vatican or even the local church’s perspective, said professor Steven Millies of Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.

    Such forms of communications “can have a narrative of what Catholicism is that doesn’t come from any ordained minister, from any bishop, and can, night after night, the world over, suggest that the pope is wrong,” he said.

    Clergy sexual abuse

    While many church leaders would like to think clergy sexual abuse scandals are in the past, survivors and their advocates want the new pope to address it as a top priority.

    Francis and Pope Benedict XVI took steps to end decades of abuse and cover-ups, changing church laws to punish abusers and their clerical superiors who hid their wrongdoing.

    But a culture of impunity still reigns, and church authorities have barely begun to deal with other forms of spiritual and psychological abuse that have traumatized generations of faithful. Twenty years after the sex abuse scandal first erupted in the U.S., there is still no transparency from the Vatican about the depth of the problem or how cases have been handled.

    The new pope must deal with not only the existing caseload but continued outrage from rank-and-file Catholics and ongoing revelations in parts of the world where the scandal hasn’t yet emerged.

    Ahead of the conclave, groups of survivors and their advocates held news conferences in Rome to publicize the problem. They created online databases to call out cardinals who botched cases and demanded the Vatican finally adopt a zero-tolerance policy to bar any abuser from priestly ministry.

    Peter Isely of the U.S. group SNAP said it was “crazy and bizarre” that the church doesn’t apply the same rigor to abusers that it does to establishing criteria for ordination.

    “You can’t be a married man and a priest,” he said. “You can’t be a woman and a priest. … But you can be a child molester and a priest.”

    LGBTQ+ outreach

    Francis famously said, “Who am I to judge?” when asked in 2013 about a purportedly gay monsignor at the Vatican. Francis sought to assure gay people that God loves them as they are, that “being homosexual is not a crime,” and that everyone is welcome in the church.

    His successor must decide whether to follow in that outreach or pull back. There’s plenty of support for rolling it back. In 2024, African bishops issued a continent-wide dissent from Francis’ decision allowing priests to bless same-sex couples, and bishops from around the world attending his synod on the church’s future backed off language explicitly accepting LGBTQ+ people.

    “We want a united Catholic Church, but we must stay with the fundamentals,” said Ndyanabo, the Ugandan lay leader. “The gospel should not change at all because of our own human weakness.”

    The Rev. James Martin, who seeks to build bridges with LGBTQ+ Catholics, knows the degree of opposition but remains hopeful.

    “The challenge for the new pope is to continue Francis’ legacy of reaching out to a group who has felt excluded from their own church,” Martin said. “Based on the synod, I would say that many cardinals feel that there needs to be welcome of LGBTQ+ people because they know their dioceses. But how far that goes is up in the air.”

    ___

    Rodney Muhumuza in Kampala, Uganda, and Giovanna Dell’Orto in Vatican City contributed.

    ___

    Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

    Share this @internewscast.com
    FacebookXRedditPinterest
    You May Also Like

    "Challenging Day Ahead: Search Continues for Missing Children and Adults in Kerrville"

    AUSTIN (KXAN) The city of Kerrville and Kerr County provided another update…
    • Internewscast
    • July 5, 2025
    Paxton's 41st annual Old-Fashioned Fourth of July Celebration
    • Local news

    Paxton’s 41st Annual Traditional Fourth of July Celebration

    More than 700 attendees gathered at Pells Park in Paxton to celebrate…
    • Internewscast
    • July 5, 2025
    Ketanji Brown Jackson turns independent streak loose on fellow justices
    • Local news

    Ketanji Brown Jackson Shows Her Independent Spirit Among Fellow Justices

    To hear Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson tell it, it’s a “perilous moment…
    • Internewscast
    • July 5, 2025
    Champaign Library hosts forum to combat youth violence
    • Local news

    Champaign Library Holds Discussion on Reducing Youth Violence

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WCIA) — In Champaign, the community came together Thursday night…
    • Internewscast
    • July 5, 2025
    Tucker Carlson interviews Iranian president amid MAGA rift over Iran-Israel conflict
    • Local news

    Tucker Carlson Speaks with Iranian President as MAGA Supporters Divided Over Iran-Israel Tensions

    Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson said Saturday he would soon air…
    • Internewscast
    • July 5, 2025
    Storm Team 3: Tracking the Tropics this weekend
    • Local news

    Storm Team 3: Monitoring Tropical Activity This Weekend

    This weekend, the primary influence on our weather will be Tropical Depression…
    • Internewscast
    • July 5, 2025
    Actor Julian McMahon dies after private battle with cancer
    • Local news

    Actor Julian McMahon Passes Away Following a Private Struggle with Cancer

    Renowned actor Julian McMahon, celebrated for his performances in FBI: Most Wanted,…
    • Internewscast
    • July 5, 2025
    Statesboro VFW honors Independence Day
    • Local news

    Statesboro VFW Celebrates Fourth of July

    STATESBORO, Ga. () — The Statesboro VFW honored Independence Day Friday by…
    • Internewscast
    • July 5, 2025
    California fireworks warehouse catches fire and explodes
    • Local news

    Discovery of Human Remains at California Fireworks Warehouse Explosion Site

    Officials reported that human remains have been discovered at the location of…
    • Internewscast
    • July 5, 2025
    Drone video shows deadly flooding in Kerrville, Texas
    • Local news

    Aerial Footage Captures Severe Flooding in Kerrville, Texas

    IE 11 is no longer supported. For the best experience, please visit…
    • Internewscast
    • July 5, 2025
    7 shot, 2 killed in downtown Indianapolis mass shooting
    • Local news

    Tragic Downtown Indianapolis Shooting Leaves 2 Dead, 5 Injured

    INDIANAPOLIS – Residents are seeking answers following a downtown mass shooting early…
    • Internewscast
    • July 5, 2025
    Gov. Greg Abbott officially names Texarkana as Film Friendly
    • Local news

    Governor Greg Abbott Designates Texarkana as Film-Friendly

    TEXARKANA, Tx. (KTAL/KMSS) – Texarkana will now join more than 200 Film…
    • Internewscast
    • July 5, 2025
    Central Texas flash floods: Why were they so catastrophic?
    • Local news

    Devastating Flash Floods in Central Texas: What Made Them So Severe?

    AUSTIN (KXAN) – In the overnight hours of July 3 and 4,…
    • Internewscast
    • July 5, 2025
    Mendota man pleads guilty to witness tampering
    • Local news

    Hampton resident facing charges for sharing child pornography accepts plea agreement

    A man from Hampton, Carter County, Tennessee, who faced accusations of uploading…
    • Internewscast
    • July 5, 2025
    Prime Minister Anthony Albanese keynote speech John Curtin research centre
    • AU

    “PM’s Discreet Note on Australia’s Independent Approach Amid US Dependence”

    Anthony Albanese appeared to subtly try to indicate a move away from…
    • Internewscast
    • July 5, 2025
    Large sheriff’s office presence at Orange County apartment complex
    • Local news

    Heavy Sheriff Department Presence at Orange County Apartment Complex

    Law enforcement response to the Baldwin Apartments in Orange County. (Photo by…
    • Internewscast
    • July 5, 2025
    Internewscast Journal
    • Home
    • Privacy Policy
    • DMCA Notice
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Guest Post
    • Support Our Cause
    Copyright 2023. All Right Reserverd.