Cardinals from around the world will sequester in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel on Wednesday to elect the next pope in a sub rosa process known as the conclave.
Whoever is chosen as the next Bishop of Rome and the new pontiff will face plenty of challenges.
They include whether to continue the LGBTQ+ outreach started by late Pope Francis and whether to allow women to become priests and deacons.
Pope Francis made welcoming LGBTQ+ Catholics a hallmark of his papacy. In 2013, he said “Who am I to judge?” when asked about a purportedly gay priest.
He also distinguished himself from his predecessors by saying that “being homosexual is not a crime.”
Pope Francis was also outspoken about issues such as climate change, the ethics of new technologies and the rights of immigrants.
It remains unclear whether the conclave will result in a leader aligned with Pope Francis’ more progressive stance or a conservative who will take the church in a new direction.
But where do the leading candidates for the job stand on key issues?
Cardinal Pietro Parolin
70-year-old Parolin was Secretary of State under Pope Francis and is a respected Vatican veteran. But despite being well-versed in the diplomatic workings of the Holy See, he has little pastoral experience and is seen as being slightly more conservative than his former boss.
His record on LGBTQ+ issues remains conservative. In 2019, he failed to renew the Vatican’s condemnation of the criminalisation of same-sex relations and has spoken harshly of gender ideology, calling it “ideological colonisation” and “extremely dangerous because it nullifies differences in its claim to make everyone equal.”
However, he did dismiss the claim that sexual abuse among the clergy is linked to homosexuality, calling it a “serious and scientifically untenable association”.
On the climate crisis, Parolin’s view tallies with those of the late Pope Francis. He has said the Vatican is committed to climate action, and while he admits it’s a secular issue, he says there is an “ethical and moral dimension” to the problem.
He has also been vocal about his opposition to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, calling it a “third world war in piecemeal” but has also expressed his opposition to abortion and surrogacy, slamming the latter as “deplorable”.
Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle
Tagle, 67, is on many bookmakers’ lists to be the first Asian pope, a choice that would acknowledge a part of the world where the church is growing.
Though he has pastoral, Vatican, and management experience, some consider him too young to be elected head of the Catholic Church, as it is believed the conclave wouldn’t favour a protracted pontificate.
Nevertheless, he has been nicknamed the “Asian Francis” and is widely expected to continue the progressive agenda of the late pontiff.
Like Pope Francis, he has been outspoken about the impact of climate change and has also been critical of the “harsh” stance adopted by church figures towards gay people, divorced people and unmarried mothers, advocating for a more compassionate approach to marginalised groups.
“If we look at diversity as a problem, it will be a problem,” he said in 2019.
“But if we look at diversity as a gift, where we could exchange gifts, where in humility admit what I do not possess and appreciate what others possess, then we will need each other. There’s neutrality. There’s interdependence.”
Unlike many cardinals, Tagle has also embraced social media, amassing more than 600,000 followers on Facebook and around 39,000 on X.
Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu
65-year-old Ambongo, one of Africa’s most outspoken religious leaders, is deeply committed to the Catholic orthodoxy and widely seen as a conservative.
He has received praise from some in the Democratic Republic of Congo for promoting interfaith tolerance and for his unwavering advocacy for social justice.
In a country with high poverty and hunger levels despite being rich in minerals, and where fighting by rebel groups has killed thousands and displaced millions in one of the world’s biggest humanitarian crises, he frequently criticises government corruption and inaction, as well as the exploitation of the country’s natural resources by foreign powers.
He has called climate change a “moral outrage” but has referred to blessing same-sex couples as “cultural colonisation”.
Considered conservative on LGBTQ+ issues and speaking of people attracted to the same sex, Cardinal Ambongo said, “We don’t stigmatise them, but we don’t encourage the practice either.”
While Ambongo has not publicly supported women priests, he has said the Church in Africa has “no particular difficulty” with the idea.
Cardinal Matteo Zuppi
Zuppi, 69, is a candidate widely viewed in Pope Francis’ tradition of ministering to those on the margins, although his relative youth would count against him for cardinals seeking a short papacy.
In a sign of his progressive leanings, Zuppi wrote the introduction to the Italian edition of “Building a Bridge” by Reverend James Martin, an American Jesuit, about the church’s need to improve its outreach to the LGBTQ+ community.
Zuppi wrote that building bridges with the community was a “difficult process, still unfolding.” He recognised that “doing nothing, on the other hand, risks causing a great deal of suffering, makes people feel lonely, and often leads to the adoption of positions that are both contrasting and extreme.”
He has extensive experience working with disenfranchised communities and has participated in several peace talks around the world, including a role as chief negotiator in 1992 talks that led to the end of the civil war in Mozambique.
Zuppi has also spoken about the need for a “creative peace” in Ukraine and two years ago was made the Vatican’s peace envoy for Ukraine by Pope Francis. In that capacity, he visited Moscow to “encourage gestures of humanity” and also held talks with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Cardinal Péter Erdő
Known by his peers as a serious theologian, scholar and educator, 72-year-old Erdő is a leading contender among conservatives.
He has served as the archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest since 2002 and was made a cardinal by Pope John Paul II the following year. He has participated in two conclaves, in 2005 and 2013, for the selection of Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.
Erdő opposes same-sex unions and has also resisted suggestions that Catholics who remarry after divorce be able to receive communion. He stated in 2015 that divorced Catholics should only be permitted communion if they remain sexually abstinent in their new marriage.
An advocate for traditional family structures, he has cultivated close ties with Viktor Orbán and his controversial premiership in Hungary, which recently made headlines by banning Pride marches.
When hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers entered Europe in 2015, fleeing war and deprivation in the Middle East and Africa, Erdő emphasised that the church had a Christian duty to provide humanitarian assistance, but stopped short of the outright advocacy for migrants that was one of Pope Francis’ top priorities.
