10 Posts
Cardinals will vote for Pope Francis’ successor based on whether they want his legacy to live on or a change of direction, CNN’s Vatican analyst said.
The senior church officials around the world will soon converge in the Vatican for a millennia-old process known as the conclave to select the next face of the Catholic Church following Francis’ death on Monday.
Elise Allen told CNN that cardinals eligible to cast that vote will now be asking themselves whether they think Francis’ papacy led the church in a good direction or whether they “want to try something different.”
“I think the general consensus is that Francis was very beloved by the world. He was a bit of a lightning rod, though,” said Allen, who is also a senior correspondent at the Catholic news outlet Crux.
The Argentinian pontiff was known for his more progressive views on immigration and LGBTQ+ issues, but Allen said his approaches also drew doubts from the conservative fraction.
“He was quite controversial, as you mentioned, with conservatives and especially with some doctrinal points they disputed. Maybe he wasn’t firm enough on some issues,” Allen said.
“My instinct, and I could be totally wrong on this, is that they’re going to want something, someone who can continue a lot of Francis’s legacy, the things that the world appreciated, but who might be a little more predictable.”
Some context: When a pope dies, the dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals calls for a meeting of all cardinals eligible to participate in a secret vote. There are currently 136 eligible cardinals. It typically takes between two and three weeks for a pope to be chosen, though it can stretch slightly beyond that if cardinals struggle to agree on a candidate.
Survivors of church sexual abuse say the next pope needs to do more to rid Catholicism of abusive clergy members and overhaul the Vatican’s handling of such cases.
The Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests (SNAP) called for whoever succeeds Pope Francis to institute a “zero tolerance law” for sexual abuse.
The survivor advocacy group wants abusive clergy — and church leaders who’ve covered up their crimes — to be ejected from the ministry. It also wants more oversight of bishops.
“(The next pope) must use his authority to enact fundamental, institutional changes to end the systematic practice of sexual abuse and its concealment.”
In 2022, Francis told CNN Portugal the church had “zero tolerance” for abuse and that a priest could not remain in the ministry “if he is an abuser.”
But SNAP said Monday that the church had not followed through on its promises of transparency and more work was needed to bring abusers to account.
When Francis became pontiff, he inherited an institution tarnished by decades of abuse scandals involving crimes committed by clergy members against vulnerable children worldwide.
Critics had hoped for change, but in 2018, Francis was criticized for defending a Chilean bishop who had been accused of covering up sexual abuse. The pope later called his handling of the case a “grave error” and invited victims to meet him.
In 2019, Francis convened an unprecedented four-day summit of church leaders in Rome to discuss ways to rid the church of sexual predators, who he called the “tools of Satan.”
One of the summit’s outcomes was the withdrawal of Vatican secrecy rules that had prevented documents and information from being shared with civil authorities. But SNAP says information is still being withheld and alleged crimes concealed.
The group launched “Conclave Watch,” a website tracking papal candidates, including their records on reporting sexual abuse within the church.
“When white smoke emerges from the Sistine Chapel, the new pontiff will have no credibility with survivors if he has a history of having enabled sexual abuse by concealing it from the public and allowing perpetrators to remain in ministry in any capacity,” SNAP said.
Pope Francis is being remembered in the Pacific as a leader who championed the environment and helped amplify the voices of those most affected by climate change.
Frances frequently advocated against the burning of fossil fuels and urged leaders to take action against climate change. He was also the first pope to make ecological issues a cornerstone of his papacy.
Archbishop of Suva, Peter Loy Chong, who oversees the Catholic Church in Fiji, Rarotonga, Kiribati, Narau & Tuvalu, said it was heartening for Pacific people to hear the leader of the church speak strongly about climate change.
“Everyone is talking, but the voices of the people right in the front of climate change are forgotten,” he said. “For us, especially with climate change, it means a lot to us if we can get inside the conversations.”
“If you cannot bring in the voices of those people, then the world will not know what is happening.”
Loy Chong highlighted a visit Francis made to Papua New Guinea last year, during which Francis delivered a politically charged message about the mining of rare earth minerals in the region.
“These goods are destined by God for the entire community,” Pope Francis said, warning large international companies should not be the only ones to benefit.
“That was a big statement for our leaders to hear,” said Loy Chong. “A lot of mining industry are scavenging the Pacific Islands.”
Some context: The Pacific Islands are hit harder than most places in the world by climate change – suffering from a “triple whammy” of ocean heating, sea level rise and acidification, which is harming ecosystems, damaging crops, containing fresh water sources, and destroying livelihoods. Kiribati is considered one of the world’s most vulnerable nations to climate change.
“The fact that you’re gay does not matter. God loves you.”
These were the words Juan Carlos Cruz, a victim of clerical sexual abuse and an openly gay Vatican advisor, recalled Pope Francis telling him several years ago.
“Pope Francis had the guts and the courage to name things by their name, things that were forbidden to speak [of] – the abuse of priests, the cover up of bishops, of cardinals,” said Cruz, who spent three days with the pontiff in 2018.
Pope Francis met that year abuse survivors like Cruz after investigations uncovered another sex abuse scandal in the Catholic church, this time in Chile.
Francis had personally apologized to him for “grave errors” in the handling of the scandal.
“He really has made a difference providing safe spaces and prevention. And now, we’re working on reparations, which are very important, if you ever can repaired of this,” Cruz told CNN.
Cruz also mentioned he brought some transgender people to meet the pope to share their stories, with Cruz recalling Francis was “almost in tears” during the encounter.
The church belongs to “every one, every one, every one,” Cruz recalled Francis saying, and hopes the church can preserve the pontiff’s legacy of acceptance.
A more progressive legacy: Francis established the church’s first commission for the protection of minors in 2014. In 2023, Francis authorized blessings for same-sex couples, marking a significant shift in the church’s approach to LGBTQ+ people.
But some survivor groups argue the Catholic church had not followed through enough on promises of transparency and needs to do more to bring abusers to account.
These words, delivered by Pope Francis to Canadian Indigenous leaders during their historic visit to Rome in 2022, were decades in the making.
Francis apologized for the Catholic Church’s role in what he said were “deplorable” abuses at Canada’s residential schools, which forcibly assimilated Indigenous children into Canadian society, stripping them of their language and culture.
More than 4,000 Indigenous children died from either neglect or abuse in residential schools, most of which were run by the church, according to Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The last residential school closed in 1998.
The discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves on the grounds of former residential schools in British Columbia and Saskatchewan in 2021 further laid bare the extent of the horrors.
Indigenous leaders had fought for decades for a papal apology for the harm inflicted on First Nations, Inuit and Métis children.
Francis will be remembered in Canada as the pope who finally delivered that apology — first at the Vatican, then again during an emotional six-day “pilgrimage of penance” in Alberta, Quebec and Nunavut.
“I humbly beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the Indigenous peoples,” Francis said in Canada.
The pontiff’s visit was bittersweet for survivors, some of whom said it triggered more pain.
But Francis’ public recognition of the Church’s wrongdoing — abuses for which he said he felt “sorrow and shame” — were a crucial step toward reconciliation, according to many Indigenous leaders.
“We’ve lost an ally,” Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak, told CNN affiliate CBC News. “He wanted to right the wrongs of the past.
“Pope Francis opened up a new chapter to healing for survivors and their families.”
The Southeast Asian nation of East Timor — one of the world’s most Catholic countries — has declared a week of national mourning for Pope Francis.
East Timor, also known as Timor-Leste, is the second-most Catholic country in the world, with 97% of the population identifying as Catholic, the highest share outside of the Vatican.
It hosted Pope Francis on his marathon trip through Asia last year. He received a rapturous welcome, with almost half of the country’s 1.3 million population attending his open-air Mass.
Churches in East Timor held special masses on Monday and flags will be flown at half-mast to honor the pope, whose death was described by its President Jose Ramos-Horta as a “tremendous loss for the world, not just only for Christians.”
East Timor is one of the world’s youngest countries and the Catholic Church was influential in its tumultuous and bloody fight for independence from Indonesia.
The East Timor government called the pope’s visit “a historic moment for our country.”
“It was a profound encounter with a people who had suffered so much in gaining their freedom and independence,” said government spokesperson and minister Agio Pereira.
East Timor will also have an important role in choosing the next pope.
Cardinal Virgilio do Carmo da Silva is the country’s first cardinal after he was hand-picked by Pope Francis in 2022.
Carmo da Silva is named by the Vatican as one of 135 cardinal electors, making him the first person from East Timor to take part in a conclave, the millennia-old process of picking a new pontiff.
Palestinians from Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Gaza are mourning Pope Francis’ death, saying they’ve “lost a man of peace” who was “supportive of the Palestinian people.”
In Gaza, worshippers commemorated the pope at the Holy Family Church.
Francis, who had long criticized Israel’s war in Gaza, called for a ceasefire in the enclave. Throughout the war, he made nightly calls to Father Gabriele Romanelli, parish priest of the church in Gaza, where Christians and Muslims have often sought refuge from Israeli bombardment. The last call between the two was held on Saturday, Romanelli said.
The Pope was “very close to us” during the war, sending a “blessing for all Gazan people and for all the Palestinians,” Romanelli said. “We expect that the world will accept his call…his appeal for the peace.”
Across Gaza, Christian and Muslim Palestinians mourned the pope.
“We lost a man of peace and a man of love,” Palestinian Christian Essam Qormosh said. Mouein Shaloulah, a Muslim Palestinian, expressed “grief and sorrow,” saying he hopes the Pope’s call for “justice and fairness” will be achieved after his death.
In Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, mayor Anton Salman said the loss is both to the “Catholic Church and to humanity.” The Pope used to “encourage [the people of Gaza] to stay and remain steadfast until this dark cloud clears from Palestinian skies.”
“Bethlehem is sad today,” resident Atallah Hannah said. “He was supportive of the Palestinian people.”
In Jerusalem, pilgrims and worshippers have been celebrating Easter at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre — believed to be the site of Jesus Christ’s tomb, from which he was resurrected.
“We were honestly surprised with the news, and very sad,” a Palestinian Christian worshipper said. “We want to pray for his soul in this holy day after the day of resurrection.”
Pope Francis had been expected to canonize the world’s first millennial saint at a service next Sunday attended by tens of thousands of teenagers from around the world. The event has since been postponed.
Born in London to Italian parents in 1991, Carlo Acutis was just 15 years old when he died of leukemia in 2006. He was beatified in Assisi, Italy, last year, where his body lies entombed in a transparent casket, covered by a wax mold of his likeness, wearing a track top, jeans and trainers, according to Reuters.
His mother Antonia Salzano Acutis told the news agency that her son showed an early interest in the church, but in many ways, he was just like an ordinary teen.
“His extraordinary quality was the fact that he opened the door of his heart to Jesus and put Jesus in the first place in his life,” Salzano Acutis said.
Becoming a saint requires the recognition of two miracles. Prayers to Acutis are credited with healing a 4-year-old Brazilian boy who suffered from a pancreatic illness, and a 21-year-old Costa Rican woman who was almost killed in a bicycle accident.
Acutis was known for his devotion to miracles and apparitions of the Virgin Mary and created a website to document them, according to Vatican News. His life was the subject of a documentary released earlier this month that depicts him as an ordinary sneaker-wearing teenager with a talent for web design.
Pope Francis’ death has triggered the start of a millennia-old process of picking a new pontiff.
The mourning period: The pope’s passing marked the start of the “Papal Interregnum” — the period between the death of one pope and the election of another. The day of the pope’s death includes nine days of mourning known as the Novendiales, and the pope must be buried between the fourth and sixth day. Cardinals must now decide exactly when the funeral can take place. Until then, the pope will lie in state in a coffin.
The burial: Francis declared his wish to be buried in a simple tomb in the ground at Rome’s Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, a significant Catholic church and papal basilica. Seven past pontiffs are buried there, but he will be the first in over a century to choose this burial site, which is outside the Vatican. He had arranged for an unnamed benefactor to cover the expenses of his burial.
Picking a new pope: Cardinals from around the world must gather for the conclave to select Francis’ successor. The voting process is kept secret and typically takes between two and three weeks, though it can stretch slightly beyond that if cardinals struggle to agree on a candidate.
The interim: Cardinal Kevin Farrell, who holds the position of “camerlengo” or chamberlain, has become acting head of the Vatican. Farrell was also the cardinal who sealed the Papal Apartment of the Apostolic Palace, the traditional residence of the pope, to mark the beginning of the mourning period. The apartment was not used by Francis, who lived in Casa Santa Marta, and that apartment was also sealed. The closure of the pope’s residences is a symbolic gesture that historically served to prevent looting and symbolizes the formal end of the Francis pontificate.
