Who Could Be the Next Pope? These Are the Names to Know

Time​ Magazine

06-05-2025

Any baptized man can become pope, but traditionally he (and it is always a 'he') is elected from the college of Cardinals. This year, possible contenders range from Francis' liberal-leaning secretary of state, Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, to Cardinal Robert Sarah of Guinea, an ultra-conservative and outspoken critic of Francis. We could also see, for the first time, an American pope, a pope from Sub-Saharan Africa, or an Asian pope.
With campaigning frowned upon, consultations secretive, and coalitions in constant flux, it is impossible to predict an outcome or even a list of top contenders. 'The trash heaps of church history are littered with the carcasses of journalists who have tried to predict the next pope,' wrote long-time Vatican analyst John L. Allen in the National Catholic Reporter in a prelude to a list of potential candidates to replace Pope John Paul II in 2005. As if to prove his point, Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, who greeted the world from the St. Peter's balcony as Pope Benedict XVI a few days later, didn't even make Allen's list. Argentina's Jorge Mario Bergoglio did—but it took another round before he was named Pope Francis in 2013, upon Benedict's resignation.
Roman-born Zuppi, 69, is considered to be the most likely continuity candidate—someone close to Francis, who is best equipped to cement his legacy. In 2015, Francis appointed Zuppi as Archbishop of Bologna, one of the most influential posts in Italy, and then made him president of an important bishops' conference in 2022. In 2023, Francis tapped Zuppi to be his peace envoy for Ukrainian affairs. 'Short of pointing a finger and publicly shouting, 'This is my beloved son, upon whom my favor rests,' it's difficult to think of anything else a pontiff might do to signal that someone has his trust,' wrote Allen in a recent profile. Zuppi is closely tied to Sant'Egidio, a powerful group of lay Catholics dedicated to social services that could give him an edge.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin: A Diplomat
The Vatican's secretary of state since 2013, Parolin, 70, has been described by the Italian press as the natural heir to Pope Francis' legacy. A seasoned diplomat for the Holy See who served in Venezuela, Nigeria, and Mexico, he is seen by Vatican insiders as a prudent moderate who, like Francis, has consistently focused on democracy, human rights, and humanitarian outreach. Parolin oversaw the implementation of 2018's controversial agreement with China's leadership that granted the Chinese Communist Party a role in naming new bishops in the country.
That agreement was put to the test in late April, when China's state-sanctioned Catholic leadership unilaterally appointed two new bishops during the interregnum between Francis' death and the election of a new pope. The Chinese appointments—one of which was to replace a bishop already recognized by the Vatican—will be among the new pope's first diplomatic challenges and will underscore the need for a candidate who can handle the geopolitical challenges of our era. 'There's a short list of cardinals one can seriously imagine sitting across a table from Donald Trump, Xi Jinping, or Vladimir Putin and holding his own,' says Allen, who is now the editor of Crux, an online newspaper focused on the Catholic Church. Parolin, he adds, is one of them.
Robert Francis Prevost: An Outside Insider
An American has never been pope, and that is not likely to change anytime soon. Nonetheless, Prevost, 69, who served as head of Francis's main advisory group on picking new Bishops, benefits from broad name recognition that could give him an edge in a large group of electors with little common ground. Born in Chicago to a family with Italian, French, and Spanish roots, Prevost was dubbed 'The least American of the Americans' by Vatican correspondent Iacopo Scaramuzzi in the influential Italian newspaper La Repubblica. Prevost served as a missionary in Peru for the early part of his career, before moving on to leadership positions in the Vatican, a range of experiences that solidify his credentials as a teacher, statesman, and governor.
Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle: An Asian Francis
The former archbishop of Manila, Tagle, 67, has been seen as a rising star in the church ever since his 1997 appointment to a select group of Catholic theologians who provide guidance to church leadership on key theological questions. Born in Manila, Tagle would be the Vatican's first Asian pope in the modern era (a handful of first-millennium Syrian popes could technically count as Asian), a strategic choice for a church whose growth is strongest in Asia and Africa.
But it is his charisma, his defense of the poor, his call to action against climate change, and his stance that the church has been too harsh on homosexuality, divorced couples, and unwed mothers that have many comparing him to Francis. He prefers to go by his nickname, Chito, instead of his clerical title, and stories abound of his lunches with beggars and his penchant for taking public transit to work. He is something of a Cardinal-influencer with an active presence and dedicated following on social media.
Peter Turkson: An African Choice
Like Tagle, Turkson, 76, from Ghana, answers the growing demand for a leader who represents the catholic church's new center of gravity in Africa and Asia. A close advisor to Francis on his seminal Laudato Si encyclical, which exhorted Catholics (and the world) to protect the planet from climate change, Turkson represents a continuation of Francis' progressive environmental and social justice legacy, says Richard Lennan, a professor of Theology at Boston College. 'Turkson would be an absolutely intriguing choice. You don't want a showman, but you do want someone who's going to inspire people. He has a rock-solid commitment to social justice and gets his feet dirty. He ticks all of those Francis boxes.'
Francis's progressive take on several areas of church doctrine, such as the blessing of same sex couples, and the ordination of women deacons has provoked criticism from other leaders of the African church, and their names— Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Robert Sarah from Guinea, have also been raised as potential African successors in a more conservative vein.
Electing a non-Western Pope is not just about geographic representation, notes Brett C. Hoover, a Theology professor at Loyola Marymount University in California, 'but the fact that these candidates are more aware of bigger issues affecting the global church than the stuff that comes up in Western countries. [They are saying] 'We've got poverty. We've got our people moving around the world. We've got environmental degradation.' A pope from the 'peripheries,' Like Francis, who was the first Latin American pope, is more likely to reflect those concerns, says Hoover.
Péter Erdő: A Traditionalist
Many in the church were unsettled by Francis' progressive stance on key issues, such as his restrictions on the Latin mass, his willingness to open key positions to non-ordained priests, and his focus on 'listening' to the catholic community as much as leading it. They will be looking for a candidate who embraces the more traditional leanings of John Paul II and Benedict XVI. Erdő, 72, the archbishop of Budapest, fits that mold. He is opposed to granting communion to divorced or remarried Catholics, against giving blessings to gay couples, and he once said welcoming migrants could encourage human trafficking. He is diplomatic, cautious, and speaks or reads English, French, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish, which gives him a linguistic edge in a polylingual contest. His elevation, however, could be interpreted as a flat rejection of Francis' legacy, which might give many of the cardinals in the conclave pause, even if they agree in principle with his conservative stance.
Pierbattista Pizzaballa: A Compromise Candidate
Pizzaballa, from Italy, is the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, serving the catholic church in Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan, and Cyprus. He has earned recognition and trust for his ability to forge connections and understanding across the region's deep divides. That might be a selling point for electors seeking to bridge the church's deepening divisions in the wake of the Francis era. Unlike many of the other candidates, he has steered clear of doctrinal debates, which could make him attractive to enough blocks within the college of cardinals to win the necessary two-thirds majority.
His astute management of a financial crisis in the Patriarchate of Jerusalem will be appealing to those concerned about the Vatican's own parlous financial state. His age, however, could work against him: at 60, he would be embarking on what could be a decades-long papacy, something that few cardinals are willing to risk on a relative unknown.