Desired: A divine guy.
Task summary: Leading the 1.4 billion-strong Catholic Church.
Area: Vatican City.
There are no official candidates for the papacy, however some cardinals are taken into consideration “papabile,” or having the qualities essential to end up being pope. After St. John Paul II damaged the centurieslong Italian hang on the papacy in 1978, the area of competitors has actually widened significantly.
When the cardinals enter the Sistine Chapel on May 7 to pick a follower to Pope Francis, the very first pontiff from Latin America, they will certainly be looking most of all for a divine guy that can lead the Catholic Church. Past that, they will certainly consider his management and pastoral experience and consider what the church requires today.
Below is an option of feasible competitors, in no certain order. The checklist will certainly be upgraded as cardinals proceed their closed-door, preconclave conversations.
Day of Birth: Jan. 17, 1955
Citizenship: Italian
Setting: Vatican assistant of state under Francis
Experience: Expert Vatican mediator
Made a cardinal by: Francis
The 70-year-old professional mediator was Francis’ assistant of state, basically the Holy See’s head of state.
Though connected very closely with Francis’ preach, Parolin is a lot more reserved in character and polite in his technique to leading than the Argentine Jesuit he offered and he recognizes where the Catholic Church may require a program improvement.
Parolin managed the Holy See’s controversial deal with China over diocesan elections and was entailed– however not billed– in the Vatican’s botched investment in a London property endeavor that caused a 2021 test of one more cardinal and 9 others. A previous ambassador to Venezuela, Parolin recognizes the Latin American church well and played a crucial function in the 2014 U.S.-Cuba detente, which the Vatican aided assist in.
If he were chosen, he would certainly return an Italian to the papacy after 3 succeeding outsiders: St. John Paul II (Poland), Pope Benedict XVI (Germany) and Francis (Argentina).
Yet Parolin has extremely little pastoral experience: He went into the seminary at age 14, 4 years after his daddy was eliminated in a vehicle crash. After his 1980 consecration, he invested 2 years as a church clergyman near his home town in north Italy, however after that mosted likely to Rome to research and went into the Vatican polite solution, where he has actually continued to be since. He has actually offered at Vatican consular offices in Nigeria, Mexico and Venezuela.
He is commonly appreciated for his diplomatic finesse on a few of the thorniest files encountering the Catholic Church. He has actually long been associated with the China documents, and he played a hands-on function in the Holy See’s polite rapprochement with Vietnam that led to an arrangement to develop a resident Vatican rep in the nation.
Parolin was additionally the Vatican’s point-person in its annoyed initiatives to finish the battles in Ukraine and theMiddle East He has actually attempted to make the church’s voice listened to as the Trump management started functioning to finish Russia’s battle in Ukraine.
” Allow’s hope we can get to a tranquility that, in order to be strong, long lasting, have to be a simply tranquility, have to entail all the stars that go to risk and consider the concepts of worldwide legislation and the UN affirmations,” he claimed.
Parolin may locate the geopolitical fact introduced by the Trump management rather unreceptive to the Holy See’s soft power.
— By Nicole Winfield in Vatican City
Day of Birth: June 21, 1957
Citizenship: Filipino
Setting: Pro-Prefect, Dicastery for Evangelization under Francis
Experience: Former archbishop of Manila, Philippines
Made a cardinal by: Benedict
Tagle, 67, gets on several bookies’ listings to be the very first Oriental pope, a selection that would certainly recognize a component of the globe where the church is expanding.
Francis brought the preferred archbishop of Manila to Rome to head the Vatican’s missionary evangelization workplace, which offers the requirements of the Catholic Church in much of Asia and Africa. His function handled higher weight when Francis changed the Vatican administration. Tagle usually mentions his Chinese heritage– his mother’s grandma became part of a Chinese family members that relocated to the Philippines.
Though he has pastoral, Vatican and administration experience– he headed the Vatican’s Caritas Internationalis federation of charity teams prior to pertaining to Rome completely– Tagle would certainly get on the young side to be chosen pope, with cardinals maybe liking an older prospect whose papacy would certainly be much more restricted.
Tagle is referred to as a great communicator and educator– crucial characteristics for a pope.
” The pope will certainly need to do a great deal of training, we’ll need to deal with the cams at all times so if there will certainly be a communicator pope, that’s extremely preferable,” claimed Leo Ocampo, a faith teacher at the College of Santo Tomas in Manila.
That claimed, Tagle’s period at Caritas was not without debate and some have actually doubted his administration abilities.
In 2022 , Francis ousted the Caritas management, consisting of benching Tagle. The Holy See claimed an outdoors examination had actually discovered “genuine shortages” in administration that had actually influenced personnel spirits at the Caritas secretariat in Rome.
— By Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, and Nicole Winfield in Vatican City
Day of Birth: Jan. 24, 1960
Citizenship: Congolese
Setting: Archbishop of Kinshasa, Congo
Experience: Head of state of the diocesans meetings of Africa and Madagascar
Made a cardinal by: Francis
The 65-year-old Ambongo is among Africa’s the majority of forthright Catholic leaders, heading the archdiocese that has the biggest variety of Catholics on the continent that seen as the future of the church.
He has actually been archbishop of Congo’s resources considering that 2018 and a cardinal considering that in 2019. Francis additionally assigned him to a team of advisors that was aiding rearrange the Vatican administration.
In Congo and throughout Africa, Ambongo has actually been deeply devoted to the Catholic orthodoxy and is viewed as traditional.
In 2024, he signed a statement in behalf of the diocesans meetings of Africa and Madagascar rejecting to adhere to Francis’ declaration allowing priests to offer blessings to same-sex couples in what totaled up to continent-wide dissent from a papal training. The rebuke crystalized both the African church’s line on LGBTQ+ outreach and Ambongo’s stature within the African power structure.
He has actually gotten appreciation from some in Congo for advertising interfaith resistance, specifically on a continent where spiritual departments in between Christians and Muslims prevail.
” He is for the visibility of the church to various societies,” claimed Monsignor Donatien Nshole, secretary-general of the National Episcopal Meeting of Congo, that has actually long dealt with Ambongo.
A forthright federal government doubter, the cardinal is additionally understood for his steadfast advocacy for social justice.
In a nation with high destitution and cravings degrees in spite of being abundant in minerals, and where combating by rebel teams has actually eliminated thousands and displaced millions in among the globe’s largest altruistic situations, he regularly slams both federal government corruption and passivity, along with the exploitation of the nation’s natural deposits by international powers.
” Congo is home plate where every person consumes, with the exception of our individuals,” he claimed in 2014 throughout a speech at the Pontifical Antonianum College.
Ambongo’s objection of authorities has actually attracted both public adoration and lawful analysis. In 2015, district attorneys bought a judicial examination of him after implicating him of “revolutionary habits” over his objection of the federal government’s handling of the problem in eastern Congo.
— By Mark Banchereau in Dakar, Senegal
Day of Birth: Oct. 11, 1955
Citizenship: Italian
Existing setting: Archbishop of Bologna, Italy, head of state of the Italian diocesans meeting
Previous setting: Complementary diocesan of Rome
Made a cardinal by: Francis
Zuppi, 69, turned up as a road clergyman in the picture of Francis, that advertised him rapidly: very first to archbishop of the well-off archdiocese of Bologna in north Italy in 2015, prior to presenting the title of cardinal in 2019.
He is carefully very closely connected with the Sant’ Egidio Area, a Rome-based Catholic charity that was prominent under Francis, specifically in interfaith discussion. Zuppi became part of Sant’ Egidio’s group that aided discuss completion of Mozambique’s civil battle in the 1990s and was called Francis’ peace envoy for Russia’s battle in Ukraine.
He took a trip to Kyiv and Moscow after Ukrainian Head of state Volodymyr Zelenskyy interested the Holy See for aid in winning the launch of 19,000 Ukrainian children taken from their families and offered Russia throughout the battle. The goal additionally took him to China and the USA.
After making him a cardinal, Francis explained he desired him accountable of Italy’s diocesans, an indicator of his adoration for the prelate that, like Francis, is referred to as a “road clergyman”– a person that focuses on ministering to bad and homeless individuals and evacuees.
Zuppi would certainly be a prospect in Francis’ practice of ministering to those on the margins, although his loved one young people would certainly count versus him for cardinals looking for a brief papacy.
In an indicator of his dynamic leanings, Zuppi created the intro to the Italian version of “Structure a Bridge,” by the Rev. James Martin, an American Jesuit, regarding the church’s requirement to enhance its outreach to the LGBTQ+ neighborhood.
Zuppi created that structure bridges with the neighborhood was a “tough procedure, still unraveling.” He identified that “not doing anything, on the various other hand, threats triggering a good deal of suffering, makes individuals really feel lonesome, and usually brings about the fostering of settings that are both different and severe.”
Zuppi’s family members additionally has solid institutional connections: His daddy benefited the Vatican paper L’Osservatore Romano, and his mom was the niece of Cardinal Carlo Confalonieri, dean of the University of Cardinals in the 1960s and 1970s.
— By Colleen Barry in Vatican City
Day of Birth: June 25, 1952
Citizenship: Hungarian
Setting: Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest, Hungary
Previous experience: Two times chosen head of the umbrella team of European diocesans meetings
Made a cardinal by: John Paul
Understood by his peers as a major theologian, scholar and instructor, Erdő, 72, is a leading competitoramong conservatives He has actually functioned as the archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest considering that 2002 and was made a cardinal by John Paul the list below year. He has actually taken part in 2 conclaves, in 2005 and 2013, for the choice of Benedict and Francis.
Holding doctorates in faith and canon legislation, Erdő, talks 6 languages, is a supporter of doctrinal orthodoxy, and champs the church’s settings on problems like abortion and same-sex marital relationship.
Erdő opposes same-sex unions, and has actually additionally withstood pointers that Catholics that remarry after separation have the ability to get communion. He specified in 2015 that separated Catholics ought to just be allowed communion if they stay sexually sober in their brand-new marital relationship.
A supporter for conventional family members frameworks, he aided arrange Francis’ 2014 and 2015 Vatican conferences on the family members.
From 2006 to 2016, Erdő functioned as head of state of the Council of European Diocesans’ Seminars, aiding to promote partnership amongst Catholic diocesans throughout Europe and to resolve modern problems encountering the church on the continent.
While cautious to stay clear of participating in Hungary’s usually turbulent political life, Erdő has actually preserved a close partnership with the nation’s rightist democratic federal government, which gives charitable aids to Christian churches.
He has actually hesitated to take settings on numerous of the federal government’s plans that split culture in Hungary such as public projects that villainized travelers and evacuees and regulations that wore down the civil liberties of LGBTQ+ areas.
When numerous countless asylum-seekers gotten in Europe in 2015 running away battle and starvation between East and Africa, Erdő highlighted that the church had a Christian obligation to offer altruistic support to those in requirement, however cut short of the full-throated advocacy for travelers that was just one of Francis’ top priorities.
— By Justin Spike in Budapest, Hungary
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