‘The View’ Host Joy Behar Says She’s Worried Pope Francis Will Be Replaced By “Some Conservative Guy” Who’s “Anti-Gay”

The View

So…a Catholic?

All eyes are on the Vatican now after the death of Pope Francis on Monday, with cardinals gearing up to gather for conclave to select the next pope.

Earlier this year, Francis had been hospitalized due to bronchitis and was reportedly in critical condition following an infection and double pneumonia. At one point during his hospital stay, the pope suffered from a bronchial spasm that caused him to inhale vomit and require mechanical ventilation, but he was ultimately able to recover and was discharged on March 23.

Since then, the pope has made limited public appearance and appeared frail in public, though he did make an appearance yesterday on Easter Sunday to meet with Vice President JD Vance and greet worshipers who were celebrating Easter in the Vatican.

After his death, the Vatican revealed that Pope Francis had suffered a stroke which resulted in him falling into a coma, before passing away from heart failure.

Born in Argentina as Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Francis was selected as the head of the Catholic church at a papal conclave in 2013 following the resignation of his successor, Pope Benedict.

With his death, the Catholic Church will now enter a nine day period of mourning for the Holy Father, before convening a secret conclave made up of all 135 cardinals who are under the age of 80 to select the next pope. The voting is done by secret ballot, with the cardinals isolated from the outside world during the conclave and the ballots burned after each round of voting.

During his papacy, Pope Francis brought about a shift in the church from his predecessors, allowing women to serve in more roles in the Catholic church and being much more accepting of the LGBT community than previous popes. He brought a much more liberal philosophy to the papacy, criticizing capitalism and anti-immigration policies while calling for action on climate change and denouncing the death penalty and the criminalization of homosexuality.

And now, people are wondering whether the cardinals will select a pope who will continue on the philosophy Francis brought to the papacy, or will instead choose a more conservative, traditional-minded Catholic.

There’s an old saying among Italian Catholics, “Seguite sempre un papa grasso con sottile,” which translate to “Always follow a fat pope with a skinny one.” Now, the saying has nothing to do with the actual size of the pope, but rather suggests the traditional thinking that the church generally chooses to replace a pope with someone of the opposite philosophy to keep things in balance.

If that holds true, that would mean we can expect a more conservative pope to follow Francis, who himself followed a fairly conservative pope in Pope Benedict.

But Francis appointed around 3/4 of the cardinals who will be voting on his replacement, which has led plenty of people to predict that the next pope would continue on his progressive philosophy for the church. And apparently that’s what the big brains on The View are hoping for.

The religious scholars took to their talk show show today to discuss replacing the pope, and host Joy Behar expressed her fear that the next pope would be “some conservative guy.”

“I wonder because there might be a backlash against how good he was and how much humility he had compared to some of the leaders in this world right now, so there might be a backlash to it, and they’ll get some conservative guy in there who, you know, is anti-gay and everything else.”

Of course even under Pope Francis the Catholic church is not permitted to bless same-sex marriages, though he did allow the church to bless individuals in same-sex unions. But he also came under fire for using anti-gay slurs multiple times in private meetings for which the Vatican had to issue an apology.

It’s safe to say that the church’s stance on gay marriage isn’t going to change much no matter who the pope is. The frontrunner for the “liberal” candidates seems to be Luis Antonio Tagle of the Philippines, who is largely seen as a continuation of the philosophies of Pope Francis when it comes to LGBT issues. But even Tagle adheres to traditional Catholic doctrines when it comes to same-sex marriage and contraception, positions that no-doubt would be considered “anti-gay” and “some conservative guy” if he were running for office in the United States.

On the other side of the spectrum are cardinals like Peter Erdo of Hungary, who is thought to be the leading “conservative” candidate, along with Peter Turkson of Ghana and Robert Sarah of Guinea, who is considered the most conservative of the contenders.

And in the middle is Pietro Parolin, one of the frontrunners because of his time serving as Secretary of State for the Vatican and his close relationship with Pope Francis.

Now, I’m not Catholic, but my pick for the next pope is Fridolin Ambongo Besungu from the Congo. He’s kind of middle of the road, and my endorsement has nothing to do with his philosophy, but I really just want our next pope to be “Ambongo from the Congo.”

Which makes about as much sense as Joy Behar saying she wants a pope who’s not “some conservative guy” who “is anti-gay.”