30-04-2025
Habemus papam: Catholic Church's new pope could be one of these cardinals
Wanted: A holy description: Leading the 1.4 billion-strong Catholic Vatican are no official candidates for the papacy, but some cardinals are considered 'papabile,' or possessing the characteristics necessary to become pope. After St. John Paul II broke the centuries-long Italian hold on the papacy in 1978, the field of contenders has broadened the cardinals enter the Sistine Chapel on May 7 to choose a successor to Pope Francis, the first pontiff from Latin America, they will be looking above all for a holy man who can guide the Catholic Church. Beyond that, they will weigh his administrative and pastoral experience and consider what the church needs is a selection of possible contenders, in no particular order. The list will be updated as cardinals continue their closed-door, pre-conclave Pietro ParolinDate of Birth: Jan. 17, 1955Nationality: ItalianPosition: Vatican secretary of state under FrancisExperience: Veteran Vatican diplomatMade a cardinal by: FrancisThe 70-year-old veteran diplomat was Francis' secretary of state, essentially the Holy See's prime associated closely with Francis' pontificate, Parolin is much more demure in personality and diplomatic in his approach to leading than the Argentine Jesuit he served and he knows where the Catholic Church might need a course oversaw the Holy See's controversial deal with China over bishop nominations and was involved – but not charged – in the Vatican's botched investment in a London real estate venture that led to a 2021 trial of another cardinal and nine others. A former ambassador to Venezuela, Parolin knows the Latin American church well and played a key role in the 2014 US-Cuba detente, which the Vatican helped he were elected, he would return an Italian to the papacy after three successive outsiders: St. John Paul II (Poland), Pope Benedict XVI (Germany) and Francis (Argentina).But Parolin has very little pastoral experience: He entered the seminary at age 14, four years after his father was killed in a car accident. After his 1980 ordination, he spent two years as a parish priest near his hometown in northern Italy, but then went to Rome to study and entered the Vatican diplomatic service, where he has remained ever since. He has served at Vatican embassies in Nigeria, Mexico and is widely respected for his diplomatic finesse on some of the thorniest dossiers facing the Catholic Church. He has long been involved in the China file, and he played a hands-on role in the Holy See's diplomatic rapprochement with Vietnam that resulted in an agreement to establish a resident Vatican representative in the was also the Vatican's point-person in its frustrated efforts to end the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. He has tried to make the church's voice heard as the Trump administration began working to end Russia's war in Ukraine.'Let's hope we can arrive at a peace that, in order to be solid, lasting, must be a just peace, must involve all the actors who are at stake and take into account the principles of international law and the UN declarations,' he might find the geopolitical reality ushered in by the Trump administration somewhat unreceptive to the Holy See's soft Luis Antonio TagleDate of Birth: June 21, 1957Nationality: FilipinoPosition: Pro-Prefect, Dicastery for Evangelization under FrancisExperience: Former archbishop of Manila, PhilippinesMade a cardinal by: BenedictTagle, 67, is on many bookmakers' lists to be the first Asian pope, a choice that would acknowledge a part of the world where the church is brought the popular archbishop of Manila to Rome to head the Vatican's missionary evangelization office, which serves the needs of the Catholic Church in much of Asia and Africa. His role took on greater weight when Francis reformed the Vatican bureaucracy. Tagle often cites his Chinese heritage – his maternal grandmother was part of a Chinese family that moved to the he has pastoral, Vatican and management experience – he headed the Vatican's Caritas Internationalis federation of charity groups before coming to Rome permanently – Tagle would be on the young side to be elected pope, with cardinals perhaps preferring an older candidate whose papacy would be more is known as a good communicator and teacher – key attributes for a pope.'The pope will have to do a lot of teaching, we'll have to face the cameras all the time so if there will be a communicator pope, that's very desirable,' said Leo Ocampo, a theology professor at the University of Santo Tomas in said, Tagle's tenure at Caritas was not without controversy and some have questioned his management 2022, Francis ousted the Caritas management, including demoting Tagle. The Holy See said an outside investigation had found 'real deficiencies' in management that had affected staff morale at the Caritas secretariat in Fridolin Ambongo BesunguDate of Birth: Jan. 24, 1960Nationality: CongolesePosition: Archbishop of Kinshasa, CongoExperience: President of the bishops conferences of Africa and MadagascarMade a cardinal by: FrancisThe 65-year-old Ambongo is one of Africa's most outspoken Catholic leaders, heading the archdiocese that has the largest number of Catholics on the continent that seen as the future of the has been archbishop of Congo's capital since 2018 and a cardinal since in 2019. Francis also appointed him to a group of advisers that was helping reorganize the Vatican Congo and across Africa, Ambongo has been deeply committed to the Catholic orthodoxy and is seen as 2024, he signed a statement on behalf of the bishops conferences of Africa and Madagascar refusing to follow Francis' declaration allowing priests to offer blessings to same-sex couples in what amounted to continent-wide dissent from a papal teaching. The rebuke crystalized both the African church's line on LGBTQ+ outreach and Ambongo's stature within the African has received praise from some in Congo for promoting interfaith tolerance, especially on a continent where religious divisions between Christians and Muslims are common.'He is for the openness of the church to different cultures,' said Monsignor Donatien Nshole, secretary-general of the National Episcopal Conference of Congo, who has long worked with outspoken government critic, the cardinal is also known for his unwavering advocacy for social a country with high poverty and hunger levels despite being rich in minerals, and where fighting by rebel groups has killed thousands and displaced millions in one of the world's biggest humanitarian crises, he frequently criticizes both government corruption and inaction, as well as the exploitation of the country's natural resources by foreign powers.'Congo is the plate from which everyone eats, except for our people,' he said last year during a speech at the Pontifical Antonianum criticism of authorities has drawn both public admiration and legal scrutiny. Last year, prosecutors ordered a judicial investigation of him after accusing him of 'seditious behavior' over his criticism of the government's handling of the conflict in eastern Matteo ZuppiDate of Birth: Oct. 11, 1955Nationality: ItalianCurrent position: Archbishop of Bologna, Italy, president of the Italian bishops conferencePrevious position: Auxiliary bishop of RomeMade a cardinal by: FrancisZuppi, 69, came up as a street priest in the image of Francis, who promoted him quickly: first to archbishop of the wealthy archdiocese of Bologna in northern Italy in 2015, before bestowing the title of cardinal in is closely closely affiliated with the Sant'Egidio Community, a Rome-based Catholic charity that was influential under Francis, particularly in interfaith dialogue. Zuppi was part of Sant'Egidio's team that helped negotiate the end of Mozambique's civil war in the 1990s and was named Francis' peace envoy for Russia's war in traveled to Kyiv and Moscow after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed to the Holy See for help in winning the release of 19,000 Ukrainian children taken from their families and brought to Russia during the war. The mission also took him to China and the United making him a cardinal, Francis made clear he wanted him in charge of Italy's bishops, a sign of his admiration for the prelate who, like Francis, is known as a 'street priest' – someone who prioritizes ministering to poor and homeless people and would be a candidate in Francis' tradition of ministering to those on the margins, although his relative youth would count against him for cardinals seeking a short a sign of his progressive leanings, Zuppi wrote the introduction to the Italian edition of 'Building a Bridge,' by the Rev. James Martin, an American Jesuit, about the church's need to improve its outreach to the LGBTQ+ wrote that building bridges with the community was a 'difficult process, still unfolding.' He recognized that 'doing nothing, on the other hand, risks causing a great deal of suffering, makes people feel lonely, and often leads to the adoption of positions that are both contrasting and extreme.'Zuppi's family also has strong institutional ties: His father worked for the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, and his mother was the niece of Cardinal Carlo Confalonieri, dean of the College of Cardinals in the 1960s and Peter ErdoDate of Birth: June 25, 1952Nationality: HungarianPosition: Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest, HungaryPast experience: Twice elected head of the umbrella group of European bishops conferencesMade a cardinal by: John PaulKnown by his peers as a serious theologian, scholar and educator, Erdo, 72, is a leading contender among conservatives. He has served as the archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest since 2002 and was made a cardinal by John Paul the following year. He has participated in two conclaves, in 2005 and 2013, for the selection of Benedict and doctorates in theology and canon law, Erdo, speaks six languages, is a proponent of doctrinal orthodoxy, and champions the church's positions on issues like abortion and same-sex opposes same-sex unions, and has also resisted suggestions that Catholics who remarry after divorce be able to receive communion. He stated in 2015 that divorced Catholics should only be permitted communion if they remain sexually abstinent in their new advocate for traditional family structures, he helped organize Francis' 2014 and 2015 Vatican meetings on the 2006 to 2016, Erdo served as president of the Council of European Bishops' Conferences, helping to foster collaboration among Catholic bishops across Europe and to address contemporary issues facing the church on the careful to avoid taking part in Hungary's often tumultuous political life, Erdo has maintained a close relationship with the country's rightist populist government, which provides generous subsidies to Christian has been reluctant to take positions on several of the government's policies that divided society in Hungary such as public campaigns that villainized migrants and refugees and laws that eroded the rights of LGBTQ+ hundreds of thousands of asylum-seekers entered Europe in 2015 fleeing war and deprivation in the Middle East and Africa, Erdo emphasized that the church had a Christian duty to provide humanitarian assistance to those in need, but stopped short of the full-throated advocacy for migrants that was one of Francis' top priorities.
