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Getty PhotographsWho would be the subsequent pope? The choice may have a profound impression on the Catholic Church and the world’s 1.4 billion baptised Roman Catholics.
It additionally guarantees to be a extremely unpredictable and open course of for a bunch of causes.
The School of Cardinals will meet in conclave within the Sistine Chapel to debate after which vote for his or her most well-liked candidates till a single identify prevails.
With 80% of the cardinals appointed by Pope Francis himself, they aren’t solely electing a pope for the primary time, however will supply a broad international perspective.
For the primary time in historical past, fewer than half of these given a vote can be European.
And though the faculty could also be dominated by his appointments, they weren’t completely “progressive” or “traditionalist”.
For these causes, it’s tougher than ever to foretell who can be elected the subsequent pope.
Might the cardinals elect an African or an Asian pope, or would possibly they favour one of many outdated fingers of the Vatican administration?
Listed below are a number of the names being talked about as Francis’s potential successor.
Pietro Parolin
Getty PhotographsNationality: Italian
Age: 70
Softly spoken Italian Cardinal Parolin was the Vatican’s secretary of state below Pope Francis – making him the pope’s chief adviser. The secretary of state additionally heads the Roman Curia, the Church’s central administration.
Having acted successfully as deputy pope, he might be thought-about a frontrunner.
He’s considered by some as extra more likely to prioritise diplomacy and a world outlook than the purity of Catholic dogma. His critics take into account that an issue, whereas his supporters see a energy.
However he has been important of the legalisation of same-sex marriage around the globe, calling a landmark 2015 vote in favour within the Republic of Eire “a defeat for humanity”.
The bookmakers might again him however Cardinal Parolin can be properly conscious of an outdated Italian saying that stresses the uncertainty of the pope-picking course of: “He who enters a conclave as a pope, leaves it as a cardinal.”
Some 213 of the earlier 266 popes have been Italian and although there has not been an Italian pope in 40 years, the pivot of the higher echelons of the Church away from Italy and Europe might imply there will not be one other for now.
Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle
Getty PhotographsNationality: Filipino
Age: 67
Might the subsequent pope come from Asia?
Cardinal Tagle has a long time of pastoral expertise – which means he has been an lively Church chief among the many folks versus a diplomat for the Vatican or cloistered professional on Church regulation.
The Church is massively influential within the Philippines, the place about 80% of the inhabitants is Catholic. The nation presently has a document 5 members of the School of Cardinals – which may make for a major lobbying faction if all of them again Cardinal Tagle.
He’s thought-about a average throughout the Catholic definition, and has been dubbed the “Asian Francis” due to a dedication to social points and sympathy for migrants that he shared with the late pope.
He has opposed abortion rights, calling them “a type of homicide” – a place consistent with the Church’s broader stance that life begins at conception. He has additionally spoken towards euthanasia.
However in 2015 when he was Archbishop of Manila, Cardinal Tagle referred to as for the Church to reassess its “extreme” stance in the direction of homosexual folks, divorcees and single moms, saying previous harshness had achieved lasting hurt and left folks feeling “branded”, and that every particular person deserved compassion and respect.
The cardinal was thought-about a candidate to be pope way back to the 2013 conclave during which Francis was elected.
Requested a decade in the past how he considered solutions he might be subsequent, he replied: “I deal with it like a joke! It is humorous.”
Fridolin Ambongo Besungu
AFPNationality: Congolese
Age: 65
It’s totally potential the subsequent pope might be from Africa, the place the Catholic Church continues so as to add hundreds of thousands of members. Cardinal Ambongo is a number one candidate, hailing from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
He has been Archbishop of Kinshasa for seven years, and was appointed cardinal by Pope Francis.
He’s a cultural conservative, opposing blessings for same-sex marriage, stating that “unions of individuals of the identical intercourse are thought-about contradictory to cultural norms and intrinsically evil”.
Although Christianity is almost all faith within the DRC, Christians there have confronted demise and persecution by the hands of jihadist group Islamic State and related rebels. Towards that backdrop, Cardinal Ambongo is considered as a fierce advocate for the Church.
However in a 2020 interview, he spoke in favour of non secular plurality, saying: “Let Protestants be Protestants and Muslims be Muslims. We’re going to work with them. However everybody has to maintain their very own identification.”
Such feedback may lead some cardinals to surprise if he absolutely embraces their sense of mission – during which Catholics hope to unfold the Church’s phrase all through the world.
Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson
ReutersNationality: Ghanaian
Age: 76
If chosen by his friends, the influential Cardinal Turkson would likewise have the excellence of being the primary African pope for 1,500 years.
Like Cardinal Ambongo, he has claimed to not need the job. “I am undecided whether or not anybody does aspire to change into a pope,” he instructed the BBC in 2013.
Requested if Africa had a great case to supply the subsequent pope based mostly on the Church’s development on the continent, he stated he felt the pope should not be chosen based mostly on statistics, as a result of “these forms of issues are likely to muddy the waters”.
He was the primary Ghanaian to be made a cardinal, again in 2003 below Pope John Paul II.
Like Cardinal Tagle, Cardinal Turkson was thought-about a possible pope a decade later, when Francis was chosen. Actually, bookmakers made him the favorite forward of voting.
A guitarist who as soon as performed in a funk band, Cardinal Turkson is thought for his energetic presence.
Like many cardinals from Africa, he leans conservative. Nonetheless, he has opposed the criminalisation of homosexual relationships in African international locations together with his native Ghana.
In a BBC interview in 2023, whereas Ghana’s parliament was discussing a invoice imposing harsh penalties on LGBTQ+ folks, Turkson stated he felt homosexuality shouldn’t be handled as an offence.
In 2012, he was accused of creating fear-mongering predictions over the unfold of Islam in Europe at a Vatican convention of bishops, for which he later apologised.
Peter Erdo
ReutersNationality: Hungarian
Age: 72
A cardinal because the age of 51, Peter Erdo is extremely regarded within the Church in Europe, having twice led the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences from 2006 to 2016.
He’s well-known amongst African cardinals and he has labored on Catholic relations with the Orthodox Church.
The archbishop of Budapest and primate of Hungary grew up in a Catholic household below communism, and he’s thought-about a possible compromise candidate.
Erdo performed a outstanding position in Pope Francis’s two visits to Hungary in 2021 and 2023, and he was a part of the conclaves that elected Francis and his predecessor Pope Benedict.
His conservative views on the household have discovered favour with some elements of the Church and he has navigated the “intolerant democracy” of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Throughout Europe’s migrant disaster in 2015, he stated the Church wouldn’t absorb migrants because it was tantamount to human trafficking.
Angelo Scola
Getty PhotographsNationality: Italian
Age: 83
Solely cardinals below 80 can vote within the conclave, however Angelo Scola may nonetheless be elected.
The previous Archbishop of Milan was a frontrunner in 2013 when Francis was chosen, however he’s thought to have fallen sufferer to the adage of coming into the conclave as Pope and leaving as cardinal.
His identify has resurfaced forward of the conclave, due to a e-book he’s publishing this week on outdated age. The e-book contains a preface written by Pope Francis shortly earlier than he was admitted to hospital during which he stated “demise is just not the top of every thing, however the starting of one thing”.
Francis’s phrases present real affection for Scola, however the faculty of cardinals would possibly not see his give attention to outdated age as superb for a brand new pope.
Reinhard Marx
Getty PhotographsNationality: German
Age: 71
Germany’s high Catholic cleric can be very a lot a Vatican insider too.
The Archbishop of Munich and Freising was chosen as an adviser when Francis grew to become pope in 2013. For 10 years he suggested the Pope on Church reform and nonetheless oversees monetary reform of the Vatican.
He has advocated a extra accommodating strategy in the direction of homosexuals or transgender folks in Catholic educating.
However in 2021 he supplied to resign over severe errors in tackling baby sexual abuse in Germany’s Catholic Church. That resignation was rejected by Francis.
Two years in the past he left the Council of Cardinals, the Pope’s most necessary advisory physique, in what was seen in Germany as a setback for his profession within the Church.
Marc Ouellet
ReutersNationality: Canadian
Age: 80
Cardinal Ouellet has twice earlier than been seen as a possible candidate for Pope, in 2005 and 2013.
For years he ran the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops, which chooses candidates for the episcopate around the globe, so he has performed a major and formative position in vetting the longer term members of the Catholic hierarchy.
As one other octogenarian, he won’t be able to play a component within the conclave itself, which can hinder his possibilities.
Ouellet is considered as a conservative with a contemporary outlook, who’s strongly in favour of sustaining the precept of celibacy for monks.
He opposes the ordination of girls monks, however he has referred to as for a better position for ladies in working the Catholic Church, saying that “Christ is male, the Church is female”.
Robert Prevost
Getty PhotographsNationality: American
Age: 69
Might the papacy go to an American for the primary time?
Chicago-born Cardinal Prevost is definitely seen as having lots of the obligatory qualities for the position.
Two years in the past Pope Francis selected Prevost to switch Marc Ouellet as prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops, handing him the duty of choosing the subsequent technology of bishops.
He labored for a few years as a missionary in Peru earlier than being made an archbishop there.
Prevost isn’t just thought-about an American, however as somebody who headed the Pontifical Fee for Latin America.
He’s seen a reformer, however at 69 is likely to be considered as too younger for the papacy. His interval as archbishop in Peru was additionally clouded by allegations of overlaying up sexual abuse claims, which had been denied by his diocese.
Robert Sarah
GUY PETERSON/AFPNationality: Guinean
Age: 79
Well liked by conservatives within the Church, Cardinal Sarah is thought for his adherence to doctrine and conventional liturgy and was usually thought-about against Pope Francis’s reformist leanings.
The son of a fruit-picker, Sarah grew to become the youngest archbishop aged 34 when Pope John Paul II appointed him prelate in Conakry in Guinea.
He has had a protracted and spectacular profession, retiring in 2021 as head of the Vatican’s workplace that oversees the Catholic Church’s liturgical rites.
Whereas not thought-about a favorite for the papacy, he may entice sturdy help from conservative cardinals.
Pierbattista Pizzaballa
EPANationality: Italian
Age: 60
Ordained in Italy when he was 25, Pizzaballa moved to Jerusalem the next month and has lived there ever since.
Pope Francis made him Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem 5 years in the past and later cardinal, and Pizzaballa has spoken of town as “the guts of the lifetime of this world”.
Fellow cardinals could have been impressed by his deep understanding of Israelis and Palestinians and the continuing struggle in Gaza.
Nonetheless, his relative younger age and inexperience as a cardinal might depend towards him, as may his affinity to Francis amongst cardinals searching for a change in path.
Michael Czerny
ANGELO CARCONI/EPA-EFE/REX/ShutterstockNationality: Canadian
Age: 78
Cardinal Czerny was appointed cardinal by Pope Francis and is like him a Jesuit, a number one order of the Catholic Church recognized for its charitable and missionary work around the globe.
Though he was born within the former Czechoslovakia, his household moved to Canada when he was two.
He has labored extensively in Latin America and in Africa, the place he based the African Jesuit Aids Community and taught in Kenya.
Czerny is widespread with progressives within the Church and was thought-about near Pope Francis. He’s presently head of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Selling Human Integral Growth.
Though a powerful candidate, it appears unlikely the cardinals would select a second Jesuit pope in succession.
