From child abuse to crisis of belief: The many challenges Pope Leo XIV faces

White smoke emerged from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel on Thursday (May 8). Yes, a new Pope was elected. Nearly an hour later, Robert Francis Prevost emerged on the balcony of St Peter’s Square and addressed a cheering crowd.

In his maiden appearance, the new Pope, who has picked Leo XIV as his papal name, spoke about peace and unity. “Peace be with you all” are the first words he spoke as pontiff.

However, being the most powerful man in the Vatican comes with multiple challenges. Here are some of them.

Money matters

The Vatican has been facing a budget crunch for some time now. Even with the cost-cutting efforts of Pope Francis, the Catholic Church faces an 83-million-euro ($94.22 million) budget shortfall, reported Reuters, quoting sources.

Meanwhile, a much larger pension fund shortfall has been reported, of an estimated 631 million euros, by the Vatican’s finance czar in 2022. Although there has been no official update on this figure, Reuters has reported that it has only increased in the last few years.

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A crisis of belief?

Europe is currently facing a significant decline in religious observance, evidenced by decreasing church attendance and a rapid reduction in the number of priestly vocations. Despite this trend, the global number of baptised Catholics continues to rise, surpassing 1.4 billion, primarily due to substantial growth in Africa.

In Germany, the EU’s most populous nation, the national bishops’ conference reported earlier this year that only 29 new priests had been ordained in the country in 2024, a historic low. Around 321,000 German Catholics left the Church last year. The total number of Catholics in Germany, whose population of 83 million was once about half Catholic, is now under 20 million.

Church’s stand on LGBT community, divorce and women

During the tenure of Pope Francis, significant tensions arose between the traditionalist and modernist members within the Catholic Church. These tensions centred on the question of whether the Church should adopt a more inclusive stance towards the LGBT community and divorced persons, and whether to permit women to assume more significant roles in ecclesiastical matters.

While Pope Francis did not institute formal changes to the established doctrines of the Church, he introduced a degree of pastoral flexibility by opening the possibility of receiving communion for divorced and remarried individuals and by permitting blessings for same-sex couples. Notwithstanding these developments, he did not authorise any modification to the rules governing priestly celibacy or the ordination of women to the diaconate.

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Pope Francis was the first pontiff to publicly embrace the LGBTQ community. He did not change doctrine, however, he voiced support for legal civil unions, personally met with LGBTQ groups and extended blessings to individuals in same-sex unions.

The debate over whether to consolidate, expand or roll back these changes is likely to continue in the coming years, if not decades, forcing the new pope into some sort of balancing act between opposing demands.

Child abuse

The incoming Pope will inevitably face the ongoing challenge of clerical sexual abuse and its concealment, a scandal that has plagued the global Catholic Church for at least three decades and significantly eroded its credibility.

While Francis and his predecessor, Benedict XVI, both committed to a policy of zero tolerance, their reform efforts have yielded incomplete results, with inconsistent application across various regions of the world.

Politics and diplomacy

While Pope Leo’s predecessor, Francis, had been open to using his moral pulpit to ruffle Western feathers, it remains to be seen what course the new Pope will take. In his attempt to do what was right, Francis spearheaded a contentious Vatican accord with China on the selection of bishops, navigating strained relations with Israel concerning the Gaza conflict and on occasion seemed to advocate for Ukraine to relinquish its defensive efforts against Russia.

He was a vocal campaigner for action on climate change and a critic of tough European and US immigration policies, putting himself at odds with US President Donald Trump after he called Trump’s plans to deport millions of migrants a disgrace.

Prevost, too, has been critical of Republican policies earlier. Now it remains to be seen if this will continue in his papacy.

With inputs from Reuters