With the conclave to elect a new pope set to begin on Wednesday, cardinals are addressing a variety of challenges the next pontiff will have to face, and are calling broadly for more clarity, but also continuity with Pope Francis. Source: Crux.
Speaking to journalists after a general congregation meeting on Friday, Colombian Cardinal Jorge Enrique Jimenez Carvajal, 83, said the Church needs a pope who can speak to all corners of the world, “And help to bring a light of hope to so many people who are living such a difficult life.”
“Pope Francis marked the world and marked society,” he said, saying the next pope can come from anywhere, and that geography doesn’t matter.
Above all, “we ask God that he be the best possible. May he have a very big heart where everyone fits, all man, all women, all those who suffer,” he said, stressing the need for “More continuity than anything else.”
Regardless of whatever decision is made and whoever gets elected, Cardinal Carvajal said the cardinals are “unanimous” on the need to support the next pope.
Cardinals have now been meeting in pre-conclave general congregations, during which they are getting to know one another and offering interventions on the state of the world and the Church, to establish a profile for the next Successor of Peter.
During the first general congregations, there was significant criticism of Pope Francis and his legacy among more conservatively minded members of the “old guard,” however, recent interventions have highlighted Francis’s emphasis on evangelisation and synodality.
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni, in regular daily press briefings, has highlighted several topics being addressed during the general congregations, including the emphasis on evangelisation, the need for the Church to speak to younger generations, and the need for the Gospel to be preached effectively “from the parishes to the curia” in Rome.
The topics of financial and clerical abuse scandals have also been addressed as “wounds” that continue to afflict the Church, and the need for more awareness so as to identify “concrete paths for its healing.”
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Cardinals address abuse, finances and evangelization ahead of conclave (By Elise Ann Allen, Crux)
