The Irish Independent’s View: In choosing a new pope, the conclave should prioritise peace and justice

The only certain outcome is that whoever gets to become the 267th leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics will find their hands full.

They will face a world in crisis and a church facing searching existential questions.

Today’s News in 90 seconds – 7th May 2025

Prescient of the global nature of the calling, Pope Francis created 163 cardinals from nearly 80 countries in his 12 years in the Vatican. Out of these, about two dozen had not seen their own cardinal before. Little wonder the first Latin American pontiff became known as the “Pope of the peripheries”.

While some progress has been made, the need for full restitution and acceptance of its guilt has yet to be addressed

But he saw a bigger picture and looked beyond the traditional sphere of influence in Europe.

In 2013, before he was named Pope Francis, as archbishop of Buenos Aires, Jorge Mario Bergoglio gave a short speech to other cardinals before the conclave began. He appealed for the church “to come out of herself and to go to the peripheries”.

His hope would be that his successor would ­carry this vision forward. Many have been surprised at the enormous interest the conclave has attracted, all the more so given the storms that have surrounded the church over recent decades.

While some progress has been made, the need for full restitution and acceptance of its guilt has yet to be addressed. Victims of clerical abuse are still hurting because the cover-ups and policies of deliberate concealment were not officially acknowledged.

The new pope has a duty to atone to survivors and lift this shadow. As Pope John XXIII once said: “Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do.”

As wars rage in Israel, Ukraine and Sudan, the world needs leaders of integrity to speak truth to power. Right to the end, Pope Francis’s advocacy for peace – especially in the Middle East and Ukraine – was unstinting. With Gaza now in the grip of famine and facing another bombardment, championing justice and non-violence has taken on life-and-death urgency.

As Taoiseach Micheál Martin said while commenting on Israel: “It’s simply wrong, in principle, and in law, to inflict hunger and suffering on a civilian population, whatever the circumstances.”

An Italian cardinal chosen by Pope Francis was Pierbattista Pizzaballa (60), who has served as Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem. In his last Christmas message, Pizzaballa said: “Christ is not in competition with the powers of this world. The power of divine love is not simply stronger than the world, but it has a different kind of power. The Caesars of this world are entrapped inside the vicious circle of strength, which eliminates enemies, in turn only to create new ones [we must bitterly note this every day].”

Nowhere is this noted more catastrophically than in Gaza, where it has been over 50 days since food, medicines and vital supplies were last allowed in.