内容摘要：Andrii Serhieiev, right, a soldier with Ukraine’s 53rd Brigade who lost a leg in combat, and another soldier install explosives near the front line in Ukraine’s Donetsk region on Feb. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Andrii Serhieiev, right, a soldier with Ukraine’s 53rd Brigade who lost a leg in combat, and another soldier install explosives near the front line in Ukraine’s Donetsk region on Feb. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Francis did create a sex abuse commission to advise the church on best practices, but it lost influence after a few years and its recommendation of a tribunal to judge bishops who covered up for predator priests went nowhere.And then came the greatest crisis of his papacy, when he discredited Chilean abuse victims in 2018 and stood by a controversial bishop linked to their abuser. Realizing his error, Francis invited the victims to the Vatican for a personal mea culpa and summoned the leadership of the Chilean church to resign en masse.

As that crisis concluded, a new one erupted over ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the retired archbishop of Washington and a counselor to three popes.Francis had actually moved swiftly to sideline McCarrick amid an accusation he had molested a teenage altar boy in the 1970s. But Francis nevertheless was accused by the Vatican’s one-time U.S. ambassador of having rehabilitated McCarrick early in his papacy.Francis eventually defrocked McCarrick after a Vatican investigation determined he sexually abused adults as well as minors. He changed church law to remove the pontifical secret surrounding abuse cases and enacted procedures to investigate bishops who abused or covered for their pedophile priests, seeking to end impunity for the hierarchy.

“He sincerely wanted to do something and he transmitted that,” said Juan Carlos Cruz, a Chilean abuse survivor Francis discredited who later developed a close friendship with the pontiff.But groups that advocated for more action on sexual abuse expressed disappointment in Francis’ legacy.

“Pope Francis was a beacon of hope to many of the world’s most desperate and marginalized people. But what we most needed from this pope was justice for the Church’s own wounded, the children and adults sexually abused by Catholic clergy,” said Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of the U.S.-based group BishopAccountability.

Pope Francis, center, sits as the coffin of late Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is carried in St. Peter’s Square for his funeral mass, at the Vatican, Jan. 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, File)In late 2007, Abdullah faced a series of massive street protests on issues including fuel hikes, demands for electoral reforms and fairer treatment for ethnic minorities. The protests shook his administration. Police cracked down on the rallies and Abdullah warned he would sacrifice public freedoms for stability.

In the March 2008 general election, his National Front suffered one of its worst results in a huge blow to Abdullah. It failed to secure a two-thirds legislative majority for the first time in 40 years, yielding 82 seats to the opposition in the 222-member Parliament. It also lost an unprecedented five states.Abdullah initially refused to step down, but pressure grew. Mahathir quit the United Malays National Organization, the linchpin of the governing coalition, to protest Abdullah’s leadership. Dissidents within UMNO openly called on him to resign to take responsibility for the dismal election performance.

Abdullah caved in and handed over power to his deputy, Najib Razak, in April 2009.Born in the northern state of Penang on Nov. 26, 1939, Abdullah came from a religious family. His grandfather was the first mufti, or Islamic jurist, of Penang. Abdullah received a bachelor’s degree in Islamic Studies from the University of Malaya.