Will the New Catholic Pontiff Preserve and Extend the Legacy of the Departed Pope?

Pope Francis, as has been remarked, was exceptional in many ways.

Although of Italian roots, he was an Argentinian settler, and thus counted as the first ever pontiff from the Americas.

He was also the first Jesuit to become Pope, and the first to take on the name of Francis, after the saint of Assisi who made the poor and the neglected his first constituency after the example of Jesus.

The departed Pope shunned the pomp and pageantry of the Vatican, chose not to live in the customary opulence of the designated residence of the pontiff but in rather lowly quarters, often cooking his own food and eating next to his staff.

Invariably he chose to wear the  plain white cassock both in liturgical service and while accosting his followers from the famous balcony of the Vatican.

This pontiff traveled to the forgotten far ends of the earth, and chose to appoint cardinals from such marginalised places as Mongolia,  Myanmar, the Philippines, Africa etc.

More than once he washed the feet of prisoners for achieving extraordinary humanist goals. Unsurprisingly, he chose to be buried away from St Peter's Basilica  at a site more commonly accessible to the ordinary devotee.

In the matter of  doctrine, though, Pope Francis tended to remain orthodox.

Although he said of the  LGBT community, "what right have I to judge" (recalling Christ's admonition 'judge not lest ye be judged'), his views on the right to abortion and same sex marriage remained traditional Catholic.

So, as a new Pope is about to be elected by the conclave of cardinals,  of whom some 80 were appointed by the late Pope Francis, can it be hoped that the 1.4 billion Catholics across the world, of whom the majority are now resident outside Europe and North America, may get for the first time a pontiff from the global South, even a man of colour?

One who may further bring the papacy in line with the moral force and social  commitment  exemplified  in Christ's ministry, further deepening the late Pope's commitment to the wretched of the earth.

And who may endorse the right of women, often in misery from the cruelties wrought by patriarchy, to choose, and of those whom god has made different in sexual orientation from the vast majority of humankind.

And, a Pope who will extend the late pontiff's profound concerns about climate change, corporate greed, war-mongering, and the temptation to turn a blind eye to the depredations wrought by the rich and the powerful across the endangered earth, and who will open the priesthood to women.

And needless to say, a papal slide back into pomp and pageantry, into canny compromise with wrongdoers in high office, be they whoever, and wherever, would  be as much a humanist defeat  as an unChristian step away from the Gospel.

Fingers crossed.