The Times Leader
The new leaders of the Catholic Church and the Church of England carry a huge responsibility at a time of political uncertainty and rootless, transitory values
The spectacle broadcast to the world from Rome yesterday was moving and magnificent. Under an azure sky, world leaders rubbed shoulders with the homeless to pay their respects to Pope Francis. Nine days of mourning begin today with a daily Mass held in the pontiff’s memory. By the end of next month we should know the name of the next Pope after the deliberations of the conclave. It is no exaggeration to say the future direction of global Christianity finds itself at a crossroads: both the Catholic Church and the Church of England will have new leaders this year, and Rome and Canterbury face myriad internal and external challenges.
[…] Francis was, however, slow to grasp the need for atonement and reform over child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. An early commission, which recommended the creation of a tribunal to judge bishops who covered up for predatory priests, went nowhere, and it was not until 2018 that Francis had what he called his “conversion” about the scale of the horrors. It is sadly inevitable that Rome and Canterbury will face fresh questions about similar scandals in the years to come. Thus, 135 cardinals who will elect the next leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics will agree that the need to maintain confidence in their church is their central mission. Debates over “conservative” or “liberal” candidates can be a distraction. In 2013 Francis’s mandate was to make the Vatican more responsive to the broader flock. In this, his legacy will endure. He appointed lay people and women to senior positions. Those reforms are unlikely to be reversed. But the remarkable strength of the modern church, which may explain its renewed appeal to the young, has been its respect for traditional ritual and timeless values.