Cardinal Robert Prevost of the United States was elected as the new leader of the Roman Catholic Church. He will be called Pope Leo.

Now the attention turns to what vision will the first pope in the United States bring.

It is difficult for the Catholic Church to bring about change. Francis often signaled toward change in his religious activities without really changing the doctrine of the church. He allowed discussions of married men in remote areas due to the lack of priests, where there was a very underpopular population, but he actually did not allow it. He took the initiative to set up a committee to study the possibility of women as deacons, but he did not follow.

However, he did allow the pastor to provide the Eucharist, the most important Catholic sacrament in the body and blood of Christ, to Catholics who have been divorced and remarried without being abolished.

Similarly, Francis did not change the official teaching that sacramental marriage is between men and women, but he did allow the blessing of homosexual couples, which seemed to be a sanction for homosexual marriage.

To what extent will the new pope maintain continuity with Francis? As a scholar, who has studied the works and actions of the Pope since the Second Vatican Parliament, conducted a series of meetings from 1962 to 1965 to modernize the church, and I know that each Pope has his own vision and his own agenda to lead the church.

Nevertheless, the Pope set practical limits on what changes could be made until they made immediately. Francis also has limitations. But, I think the new pope will have more room because of the signal Francis sent.

The synchronization process

Francis initiated a process called “synchronization” that combines Greek words to “journey” and “together.” Synchronization involves gathering Catholics of all hierarchies and perspectives to share their faith and pray to each other as they deal with challenges facing the church today.

One of Francis' favorite themes is inclusion. He advanced the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God who inspired the prophets and was considered to be the Spirit of Christians in a special way-working throughout the church; it included not only hierarchy but all members of the church. This belief forms the core principle of synchronization.

Francis initiated a two-year global consulting process in October 2022, eventually at a session in Rome in October 2024. Catholics around the world provide their insights and opinions in the process. The Religious Conference discussed many issues, some of which were controversial, such as sexual abuse in instruments, the need for oversight of bishops, the role of women in general, and the appointment of women as deacons.

Instead of providing conclusions on these topics, the final conference paper aims more to promote the transformation of the entire Catholic church into a conventional church where Catholics bring together many challenges of the modern world. Francis avoided issuing his own documents so that the statements of the conference committee could exist independently.

In a sense, the synchronized process restricts the bishop and the pope’s restrictions to listen carefully to the needs of all church members before making a decision. However, in the long run, this process opens up the possibilities of development needed when Catholics overwhelmingly prove that they believe the church should go in a certain direction.

The change of the church is difficult

However, the Pope cannot simply reverse the official position that his direct predecessors have been emphasizing. In fact, there needs to be one or two popes, during which time the pope will remain silent on matters requiring change, or at least limit himself to hints and signals on such issues.

In 1864, Pius IX condemned the claim that “the church should be separated from the state and from the state.” Until 1965 (about 100 years later), the second Vatican parliament would affirm in the declaration of religious freedom: “When the government imposes its people by force or fear or otherwise.

The second main reason the pope may avoid top-down changes is that they may not want to operate like dictators issued executive orders in an authoritarian way. Francis was accused by his critics of acting in this way, in his position on the Eucharist, for those who did not abolish and bless the gay couple in advance. However, his main force of the Pope, he emphasized synchronization, was actually in the opposite direction.

It is worth noting that when the Amazon Religious Conference was held in Rome in October 2019 - a 128-41 vote to allow married pastors in Brazil's Amazon region, Francis rejected this because it was not the right time to make such a significant change.

Past Theory

The belief that the Pope should express the faith of the people, not just his own personal opinion, is not a new insight from Francis.

The Pope's Infallible Doctrine was announced in 1870 at the Vatican's First Council, which ruled that under certain conditions, the Pope could express the faith of the church without error.

The limitations and qualifications of this power include that the Pope does not speak individually, but speaks in his formal capacity as head of the church; he must not be in heresy. He must get rid of coercion and sound mind. He must solve the problem of faith and morality. He must consult relevant documents and other Catholics so that what he teaches represents not only his own point of view but also the faith of the church.

The Marian doctrine and assumption of the perfect concept provides examples of the importance of consulting. The perfect concept announced by Pope IX in 1854 was that Jesus' mother Mary herself was free from the original sin, a stain inherited by the Catholics from Adam, and from her conception, Catholics were born all other humans. Pius XII announced in 1950 that Mary was brought into heaven by Mary at the end of her earthly life.

The documents declaring these doctrines emphasized that the bishops of the church had been consulted and confirmed the faith of the lay people.

Unification, most importantly

One of the Pope's main responsibilities is to protect the unity of Catholicism. On the one hand, making many changes quickly can lead to splits, which is the actual division of the community.

For example, in 2022, Global Methodist Church splits homosexual marriage and non-Sebat gay bishop appointments from United Methodist Church. In recent years, there have been various divisions in the Anglican exchanges in Britain. The Catholic Church faces similar challenges, but so far, it has been able to avoid division by limiting actual changes.

On the other hand, no reasonable change is made to confirm that positive developments in the culture regarding issues such as the full inclusion of women or the dignity of homosexuals may lead to mass withdrawal of members.

I think Pope Leo XIV needs to be a spiritual leader, a visionary man who can handle the challenges of the time with the legacy of his direct ex. He has said that he wants a conference church “near those suffering”, which shows that he will take a lot of direction.

If the new pope could update the church’s teachings on some popular ass issues, it was precisely because Francis laid the foundation for him.