On March 13, the College of Cardinals elected 76-year-old Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, of Buenos Aires, Argentina, as the new pope — the first Latin American ever to head the Roman Catholic Church. As Pope Francis, he leads a 1.1-billion-member institution that has become a major presence on every inhabited continent. While church membership growth has been dramatic in Africa, Asia and Latin America, it has been slowing in the traditional Catholic strongholds of Europe and North America. Francis faces a long list of other problems, including the church’s waning spiritual influence, partly due to the Vatican’s lax response to sexual abuse by priests, mishandled funds at the Vatican bank and, especially in the United States, widening rifts between traditional and liberal Catholics over issues such as gay marriage and women’s ordination.

Marcia Clemmitt is a veteran social-policy reporter who joined CQ Researcher after serving as editor in chief of Medicine and Health, a Washington-based industry newsletter, and staff writer for The Scientist. She has also been a high school math and physics teacher. She holds a bachelor's degree in arts and sciences from St. Johns College, Annapolis, and a masters degree in English from Georgetown University.