A conservative cardinal has said that whoever the next pope must stand up to the “gay lobby”. The conclave – in which cardinals vote for the new head of the Roman Catholic Church – is set to begin its deliberations on 7 May, following the death of 88-year-old Pope Francis earlier this month. Francis, who became pope in 2013 after Benedict XVI resigned, had a complex and sometimes contradictory record on LGBTQ+ rights but was praised by queer Catholics for moving conversations forward about the community. Speaking to Italian newspaper La Stampa, German cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller – who had been critical of Francis – said the next pontiff should be “strong on doctrine” and “determined to stand up to ideological lobbies, including the gay lobby”. The next pope should also have “a solid theological and doctrinal formation”, the cardinal added before calling for a return to “orthodoxy, doctrine founded on scripture and apostolic tradition, and against heresy”. Müller went on to say: “Doctrine is not the property of the pope, the bishops or the faithful… it must conform to the word of Jesus, no one can modify it. If Jesus says marriage is between a man and a woman, no one can change this doctrine. “The homosexual lobby wants to equate marriage with unions between people of the same sex but this totally contradicts the doctrine of the Bible.” The cardinal branded so-called gender ideology, a dog-whistle phrase used by anti-trans groups, as being “against the doctrine of the Church”. Müller’s viewpoint stands in contrast to what LGBTQ+ Catholics would like to see. Following Pope Francis’ death, Marianne Duddy-Burke, the co-chairwoman of the Global Network of Rainbow Catholics, told PinkNews that she hoped “cardinals will follow the guide of the Holy Spirit and choose a pope who is open to the signs of the current times, and, like Pope Francis, be a true shepherd, walking with all the sheep wherever they may be”. Her co-chairman, Christopher Vella, added: “For Pope Francis, we were first and foremost children of God, and not a theological problem or moral conundrum. “True, he did not always understand us, especially gender-non-binary and trans people, and confused us with ideological currents, but his heart was in the right place.” How is the new pope chosen? While any baptised Roman Catholic man can, technically, be elected pope, the Catholic Church has followed a specific system for choosing a new pontiff. For many centuries, popes have been selected from the College of Cardinals, the group casting the votes at the conclave. When it’s time to select a new pope, every cardinal under the age of 80 is expected to travel to Rome to cast their vote. Inside the Sistine Chapel, the cardinals write the name of their chosen candidate on a paper ballot, which is placed into a chalice to keep it as anonymous as possible. Four rounds of balloting are held every day until a candidate receives two-thirds of the votes. The public are not allowed to see the voting but are made aware when the final choice has been made by white smoke being emitted from the Vatican’s chiminea. The actual process of voting is secretive and it is no easy to predict who will be the new religious leader of the estimated 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide, but Italian Pietro Parolin, Luis Antonio Tagle, from the Philippines, and Ghanaian Peter Turkson are all believed to be in the running. Share your thoughts! Let us know in the comments below, and remember to keep the conversation respectful.