The cardinals should choose the next pope before Easter Shutterstock

Now that Pope Benedict XVI has officially left office, the search for the new head of the Roman Catholic Church has begun in earnest.

The papal conclave that will elect the new pope is set to begin sometime in the first half of this month, reportedly on March 10. But the next pontiff will have a number of difficult issues on his hands immediately. Among them is yet another set of sex scandals that have beset the church.

A few days after Pope Benedict announced his resignation, Archbishop Keith O’Brien, the only cardinal elector from Britain, resigned himself, amid allegations that he had behaved inappropriately with priests over a period of 30 years.

The new head of this ancient institution will also have to face complex modern-world issues, such as LGBT rights, in vitro fertilization and the use of contraceptives, especially in AIDS-ridden regions of the world.

It is still too early to say who will be chosen as Benedict XVI’s successor, but media reports put Italian Angelo Scola as the front-runner. Still, many suggest that the next pontiff should be from outside Europe (which would be the first instance in modern history), especially from Africa or Latin America, where the number of Catholics is growing.

The choice of a pope from a different part of the world could send a powerful message, similar to when Polish-born John Paul II was elected in 1978. John Paul II was the first non-Italian pontiff in centuries and came from behind the Iron Curtain, offering hope to Catholics in Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe at the time.

Jacek Ciesnowski