A prime cardinal asks for divine steering at a ‘troublesome’ second in historical past.

Nonetheless, dialogue of potential names started way back behind the Vatican’s partitions and past. Because the cardinals started assembly in Rome after Pope Francis’ funeral, papal watchers scrutinized snippets of statements rising from their discussions, attempting to discern whether or not the electors had been leaning towards a candidate who would construct on Francis’ agenda or one who would signify a return to a extra conventional type.

Cardinals Pietro Parolin of Italy and Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle of the Philippines have been probably the most talked about candidates to interchange Pope Francis within the days earlier than the conclave, which begins Wednesday. However conclaves are sometimes unpredictable, and this one — with so many new cardinals from so many locations who have no idea one another effectively — has much more potential to shock. An extended checklist of different contenders has already emerged.

Pietro Parolin

Plainly everybody is aware of Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state beneath Francis. Cardinal Parolin will preside over the papal election and has emerged as a number one compromise candidate.

A quiet, plodding Italian with a famously inscrutable poker face, Cardinal Parolin, 70, is deeply cautious. However at a time of world upheaval, that’s not essentially a disqualifier. Even his backers grant that he lacks Francis’ charisma and international symbolism — however because the chief of the Vatican equipment for the previous decade, he enacted Francis’ imaginative and prescient.

Cardinals have talked about Cardinal Parolin as somebody who may have a gradual, bureaucratic hand on the church’s wheel. His critics on the left query his previous feedback about same-sex marriage, which he referred to as a “defeat for humanity,” and his lack of pastoral expertise. His critics on the best criticize his function within the church’s efforts to make inroads in China, which has required negotiations with Communist leaders.

However few prelates who know him have sturdy emotions about him both method. And after the eventful and, for some, divisive dozen years beneath Francis, bland however competent could also be simply what the cardinals are in search of.

On migration, for instance, whereas Francis excoriated the inhumanity of nice powers turning the Mediterranean right into a graveyard, Cardinal Parolin stated after a gathering with Italy’s right-wing prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, that immigration was “a really, very advanced topic.”

— Jason Horowitz and Patricia Mazzei

Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle

Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle, 67, a liberal-leaning cardinal from the Philippines, has for years been deemed a front-runner to be pope and could be the primary pope from Southeast Asia.

An ally of Francis who has labored on the Vatican lately, Cardinal Tagle has a extremely personable strategy consistent with Francis’ consideration to the poor and people in want in creating international locations.

He additionally comes from a area of the world the place Catholicism continues to develop, and the place Francis paid specific consideration to attempting to construct a church with a much less Eurocentric future.

On the Vatican, Cardinal Tagle has overseen missionary work. Broadly recognized by his nickname “Chito,” he’s usually referred to as the “Asian Francis” for his means to attach with the poor, his name for motion in opposition to local weather change and his criticism of the “harsh” stance adopted by some Catholic clerics towards homosexual folks, divorced folks and unwed moms. Cardinal Tagle is standard for his humility, and his homilies have drawn the devoted to the pews and to Fb streams.

However as chief of the church within the Philippines, he was criticized by activists and fellow clergymen as being timid in regards to the scourge of clerical sexual abuse. He has additionally been faulted by some as not adequately addressing former President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug battle, through which tens of 1000’s of individuals had been summarily executed. Cardinal Tagle didn’t reply to a request for an interview.

— Sui-Lee Wee and Aie Balagtas See

Fridolin Ambongo

Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo, 65, the archbishop of Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, has been thought-about a doable contender since Francis made him a cardinal in 2019.

Pope Francis had lengthy urged the Catholic Church to “go to the peripheries,” which means communities in Africa and Asia, the place the church is also probably the most vibrant. One persistent query has been when the church would possibly reinforce that dedication by selecting a pope from Africa. Catholics make up about 18 % of the continent’s inhabitants and generate extra seminarians than every other a part of the world.

Pope Francis, an Argentine, was the primary non-European to steer the church since 741. Even so, Francis was from a household with Italian roots.

But there’s a sure paradox concerned in selecting any successor from Africa. Whereas it might be a break from custom, the Catholic hierarchy in Africa is among the many most conservative.

Cardinal Ambongo was near Pope Francis, one in every of simply 9 members of an advisory group referred to as the Council of Cardinals. However the cardinal led the opposition to Francis’ 2023 ruling that clergymen may bless same-sex {couples}.

— Neil MacFarquhar

Anders Arborelius

Bishop Anders Arborelius of Stockholm, 75, who transformed to Catholicism at age 20, is Sweden’s first Catholic cardinal.

Though Sweden was as soon as predominantly Lutheran and is now largely secular, the Roman Catholic Church has grown there lately, and Cardinal Arborelius says that lots of the Catholics there have an immigrant background. Francis’ elevation of the cardinal in 2017 was seen as one other try and appoint cardinals in locations that didn’t have one earlier than, and to succeed in out to international locations the place Catholics are a minority.

In a latest interview, Cardinal Arborelius stated the most important challenges going through the church had been constructing bridges in a polarized world, giving better affect to girls inside the church and serving to households move on the religion.

Cardinal Arborelius, who belongs to the Carmelite spiritual order, has expressed help for migrants, as Francis did. Within the interview, he expressed deep concern about rising anti-migrant sentiments, together with in Sweden. As for the blessings of same-sex {couples}, he stated, “Now we have to go to the homosexual folks with a lot love,” including, “even when we can’t acknowledge homosexual marriage.”

He performed down his probabilities of turning into pope. At 75, “I might be too outdated,” he stated. He stated he was advised that, in accordance with an A.I. chatbot, his probabilities had been 5 %. “I needed to giggle,” he stated.

— Emma Bubola

Jean-Marc Aveline

Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, 66, from Marseille in France, has spent years selling dialogue amongst faiths within the port metropolis, which is understood for its numerous cultures and religions however can be stricken by poverty and crime.

Having a background in interreligious dialogue not solely was essential to Francis but in addition has turn into an essential space for the Catholic Church.

Amongst candidates, Cardinal Aveline could be a much less apparent selection. Working in his favor: He mixes Francis’ openness to dialogue with deep theological data. Probably working in opposition to him: Conclaves haven’t been heat to French candidates for the reason that 14th century, when a French pope moved the papacy to Avignon within the south of France.

He had a very good relationship with Francis and shared a equally easy private type; he has been recognized to do his personal laundry and likes to drive his personal automotive.

In contrast to Francis, Cardinal Aveline has avoided overtly taking stands on contentious points inside the church, such because the blessing of homosexual {couples} or giving communion to divorced folks, each of which Francis allowed. Each detractors and supporters describe Cardinal Aveline as embracing “basic” positions on church doctrine.

— Emma Bubola

Charles Maung Bo

Cardinal Charles Maung Bo is well-known and influential amongst Asian leaders of the Roman Catholic Church. He has employed a fragile diplomatic contact because the chief of a Catholic minority in Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist nation.

The archbishop of Yangon, he grew to become Myanmar’s first cardinal in 2015. And as his conflict-torn nation’s most outstanding Roman Catholic, he has been an outspoken spiritual chief, calling for peace and dialogue since a army coup in 2021.

The cardinal has additionally defended Myanmar’s persecuted Muslim Rohingya folks, a extremely delicate subject there.

He has described the Rohingya as victims of “ethnic cleaning,” however he additionally suggested Pope Francis earlier than the pontiff’s 2017 go to to Myanmar to keep away from utilizing the phrase Rohingya. It’s a contested time period in Myanmar, and the cardinal stated he feared backlash in opposition to the nation’s Catholics if Francis uttered it.

Cardinal Bo, 76, has additionally reprimanded the worldwide neighborhood for inaction over the persecution of Uyghur Muslims in China.

— Patricia Mazzei

Pablo Virgilio Siongco David

Cardinal Pablo Virgilio Siongco David, 66, from the Philippines is taken into account an out of doors contender to succeed Pope Francis.

Consultants say that whereas Cardinal Tagle, additionally from the Philippines, has attracted extra consideration, Cardinal David’s barely decrease profile would possibly assist, whilst his relative youth may rely in opposition to him.

Shortly after being appointed bishop in Manila in 2015, the prelate was confronted with troublesome decisions when a wave of executions by law enforcement officials and vigilantes hit his diocese.

The killings had been set off by the marketing campaign by Mr. Duterte, then the president, to remove unlawful medication, and the local weather of violence that prevailed made staying quiet a safer selection. As a substitute, the bishop, who was elevated to cardinal in December, started retaining an inventory of these killed in his diocese, arrange mission stations to supply support to locals and publicly denounced the killings.

In an effort to speak Catholic educating extra successfully to put folks as bishop, he arrange a weekly present on YouTube. He additionally repeatedly took half in neighborhood efforts to wash up native rivers, partly to indicate that Catholic leaders shouldn’t be cloistered in high quality buildings.

— Matthew Mpoke Bigg

Peter Erdo

Cardinal Peter Erdo of Hungary, 72, an knowledgeable on canon legislation, is anticipated to be a front-runner amongst cardinals who lengthy for a return to the conservatism of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI.

He has spoken out in opposition to permitting divorced Catholics to obtain communion, for instance. However Hungarians who’ve labored with him say he’s much less doctrinaire than some followers consider.

Identified for his diplomatic abilities and command of a number of languages, he has constructed bridges with Catholic leaders in Latin America and Africa and reached out to Hungary’s Jewish neighborhood.

However he has devoted most of his profession to scholarship and has had little direct expertise coping with the day-to-day issues of churchgoers, which may work in opposition to him because the church tries to reverse a drift towards secularism throughout Europe.

Cardinal Erdo has usually prevented intervening in Hungary’s polarized politics however dismayed liberal-minded Hungarian Catholics by failing to defend Francis in opposition to a marketing campaign of abuse by the media machine of Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban, throughout Europe’s migration disaster.

— Andrew Higgins

Fernando Filoni

Cardinal Fernando Filoni, 79, is a seasoned Vatican diplomat who might finest be recognized for his function because the Holy See’s envoy to Iraq, the place he refused to depart as bombs started to fall through the American-led invasion in 2003.

As an Italian multilingual diplomat, Cardinal Filoni is seen as a doable candidate for pope partly due to his prolonged and high-profile service abroad. He has served in Sri Lanka, Iran, Brazil, Jordan and Hong Kong, the place he lived whereas he was the Vatican’s official envoy to the Philippines, and was additionally liable for the Vatican’s relationship with China.

Cardinal Filoni was near each John Paul II and Benedict XVI, however analysts prompt that Pope Francis appeared to not favor him.

Due to his worldwide expertise and function overseeing missions, the cardinal got here into the conferences that preceded this week’s conclave to pick Francis’ successor understanding a lot of his fellow electors.

Cardinal Filoni has not overseen a parish or a diocese, roles which might be often thought-about essential stipulations for a pope. However Vatican consultants have praised his dedication to his diplomatic work. He was one of many few high-profile Western figures to stay in Iraq through the battle. He grew to become a witness to the ability cuts, kidnappings, murders, declining well being care and failing infrastructure that affected the residents of the nation, and he was seen as a protector of minority Christians there.

If chosen, Cardinal Filoni would possible serve a shorter time as pope, observers say, and will enable youthful cardinals time to mature and be thought-about for the highest job.

— Motoko Wealthy

Mario Grech

Cardinal Mario Grech, 68, comes from Malta, an archipelago within the Mediterranean with a comparatively small inhabitants.

Nonetheless, the cardinal — the previous bishop of the Maltese island of Gozo — has emerged as a candidate for pope due to his function as secretary basic of the Synod of Bishops, a Vatican physique that considers “questions pertaining to the exercise of the church on the earth.”

Pope Francis made the newest synod way more inclusive and participatory, and Cardinal Grech’s function in stewarding these efforts to open up the church stand in distinction to a few of his personal historical past. Whereas he was bishop of Gozo, from 2005 to 2020, he held conservative stances on a number of points, together with homosexuality and the legalization of divorce, which he opposed when Malta held a referendum in 2011.

He modified his tone beneath Francis, a progressive, and the cardinal is now seen as somebody who would deliver continuity to the papacy.

At a time when many cardinals are new and never effectively acquainted with each other, Cardinal Grech would possibly profit from his dealings on the Synod, the place he met dozens of them in particular person. He has additionally taken up international causes that had been near Francis. Malta is a key level of entry within the Mediterranean for migrants arriving from Africa, and Cardinal Grech has referred to as on Europe to open its doorways, not shut them.

Like different senior church leaders during the last 20 years, Cardinal Grech has been accused by a few of not doing sufficient to reckon with sexual abuse that happened in his diocese. Cardinal Grech didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

— Elisabetta Povoledo

Claudio Gugerotti

Vatican officers have talked about Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti as a possible kingmaker within the conclave to decide on a brand new pope due to his ties to church buildings and influential figures all over the world.

Cardinal Gugerotti, 69, is Italian and speaks Armenian, English, Greek, Kurdish and Russian. In recent times, he led the Vatican workplace that oversees the Japanese Catholic Church buildings, 23 self-governing our bodies, primarily in Japanese Europe, which have their very own liturgy and traditions.

After years of working in Rome, he additionally is aware of his method across the Vatican.

Regardless of his connections, some Vatican observers consider his candidacy is an extended shot since he has by no means served in a pastoral function as a bishop. Pastoral expertise is extensively seen as a prerequisite for turning into pope, particularly after Francis put it on the heart of his hold forth.

Cardinal Gugerotti is aware of the previous Soviet area effectively, which has been particularly essential in church diplomacy since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. He has served as papal envoy in former Soviet republics like Belarus and Georgia and, in 2015, took on that place for Ukraine.

Some Ukrainians who’ve handled him have stated that he has not achieved sufficient to make it clear, amid requires peace, that Russia was the aggressor within the battle. Cardinal Gugerotti didn’t reply to a request for remark for this text.

— Matthew Mpoke Bigg

José Tolentino Calaça de Mendonça

Cardinal José Tolentino Calaça de Mendonça, 59, wouldn’t the primary poet to turn into pontiff ought to he be chosen: There have been a number of in historical past, together with Leo XIII, who in 1887 revealed poems in Latin, and John Paul II, who penned poems all through his life.

However Cardinal de Mendonça’s poetry has acquired a number of literary prizes in his native Portugal, and when Francis gave him his pink cardinal hat in 2019, he advised him, “You’re the poetry.” He’s additionally a biblical scholar; he’s effectively regarded in mental circles exterior the Roman Catholic world and he’s well-known internationally.

The 2 males first met in 2017, and Francis referred to as him to Rome in 2018 to be the archivist and librarian of the Vatican Library, a publish he held for 4 years. In 2022, Francis named him the Vatican’s tradition chief, and in that function he was behind a number of initiatives reaffirming the church’s dedication to artwork and its want for dialogue with the modern world.

In that spirit, he introduced worldwide artists and comedians — together with these recognized to be controversial — to satisfy with Francis on the Vatican. His workplace was additionally concerned in drafting a doc, revealed in January, that warned in regards to the potential for “the shadow of evil” in synthetic intelligence, which it stated provided “a supply of super alternatives but in addition profound dangers.”

He’s thought-about to have been near Francis, and his papacy would most definitely be one in every of continuity. He has been supportive of outreach to L.G.B.T.Q. Catholics, and a few conservatives have been crucial of him.

— Elisabetta Povoledo

Seán P. O’Malley

Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley is the just lately retired archbishop of Boston.

Certainly one of Pope Francis’ trusted allies, he took over the archdiocese of Boston in 2003 when the sexual abuse disaster was erupting within the Catholic Church, changing Cardinal Bernard Legislation, who resigned after revelations that he had protected abusive clergymen for years. Cardinal O’Malley led the area by means of a painful interval of rebuilding and reform earlier than stepping down from the function final 12 months.

In some methods, he’s a long-shot candidate. At age 80, he’s too outdated to vote for the subsequent pope, and the voting cardinals virtually all the time select their successor from amongst their very own ranks. As well as, the prospect of an American pope’s being elected is extensively thought unlikely.

However Cardinal O’Malley is understood to be revered throughout political divides. He was made a cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI in 2006, and a month after his election in 2013, Pope Francis included him as the one American in an inside circle of counselors. Pope Francis additionally made him a frontrunner of the Vatican’s workplace on sexual abuse, and he was an adviser within the reform of the Vatican forms.

At a second when questions of American energy, within the church and worldwide, fear many church leaders in different components of the world, Cardinal O’Malley can be seen as globally minded whereas nonetheless understanding the difficult dynamics of the American church. He speaks a minimum of eight languages fluently and is a Capuchin Franciscan friar recognized for sporting his behavior as an expression of humility.

Delicate-spoken and but authoritative, Cardinal O’Malley is understood for talking out not solely in opposition to abortion but in addition in opposition to gun violence, and he has referred to as repeatedly for a ban on assault weapons.

— Elizabeth Dias

Pierbattista Pizzaballa

Though Pierbattista Pizzaballa, 60, grew to become a cardinal solely in 2023, his expertise within the Center East, one of many world’s most heated battle zones, helped him rise to prominence.

Within the days after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the cardinal, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, provided himself up as a hostage in change for the liberty of youngsters who had been kidnapped to Gaza. The supply, reported by Vatican Information, the Holy See’s information portal, was not taken up, but it surely nonetheless drew consideration to him.

As an Italian, Cardinal Pizzaballa would deliver the papacy again beneath the management of a rustic that dominated it for hundreds of years, after a niche of virtually 50 years.

However Cardinal Pizzaballa is seen as a Vatican outsider, on condition that he has spent many years within the Center East somewhat than constructing alliances nearer to house. Some cardinals and different members of the Roman Catholic Church’s hierarchy are additionally involved that Cardinal Pizzaballa could also be too younger for the job.

His reverence for conventional components of church follow has made him palatable to some conservatives. However his positions on many points which have triggered division within the church should not recognized.

— Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Isabel Kershner

Robert Francis Prevost

There has by no means been a pope from the US, and the standard knowledge stays that any American could be an extended shot.

But one American who some Vatican watchers say may scrape collectively sufficient votes is Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, 69, a Chicago-born polyglot who’s considered as a churchman who transcends borders. He served for 20 years in Peru, the place he grew to become a bishop and a naturalized citizen. He then rose to steer his worldwide spiritual order. Till the loss of life of Pope Francis, he held probably the most influential Vatican posts, working the workplace that selects and manages bishops globally.

The cardinal, who’s a member of the Order of St. Augustine, resembles Francis in his dedication to the poor and migrants. Typically described as reserved and discreet, Cardinal Prevost would depart stylistically from Francis. His supporters say he would most definitely proceed the consultative course of began by Francis to ask lay folks to satisfy with bishops.

It’s unclear whether or not he could be as open to homosexual, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Catholics as Francis was. Though he has not stated a lot just lately, in a 2012 tackle to bishops, he lamented that Western information media and standard tradition fostered “sympathy for beliefs and practices which might be at odds with the Gospel.” He cited the “gay way of life” and “various households comprised of same-sex companions and their adopted youngsters.”

The cardinal, like many others, has drawn criticism over his dealings with clergymen accused of sexual abuse. Makes an attempt to succeed in the cardinal weren’t profitable.

— Motoko Wealthy

Joseph W. Tobin

Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin is the archbishop of Newark, which has probably the most ethnically numerous archdioceses in America.

When Pope Francis named him a cardinal in 2016, he was the primary to carry the publish in Newark, throughout the Hudson River from New York Metropolis in New Jersey. He changed an archbishop who refused communion to politicians who supported abortion rights and who additionally failed to make sure {that a} priest who was convicted of kid sexual abuse would haven’t any entry to youngsters.

Cardinal Tobin is understood for his help of ladies, homosexual folks and immigrants. His views had been formed after working as a parish priest, after which spending years touring the world as chief of his spiritual order, the Redemptorists.

Pope Benedict introduced him to the Vatican to assist lead the workplace that oversees spiritual orders, however after he defended nuns who had been being investigated by the Vatican for inadequate adherence to orthodoxy, he was despatched to Indianapolis to function its archbishop. There, in 2016, he insisted that the church would proceed to resettle Syrian refugees even after Mike Pence, then the governor of Indiana, tried to dam the transfer.

He has proven help for the thought of ladies turning into deacons and stated that he didn’t see “a compelling theological motive why the pope couldn’t title a girl cardinal.”

— Elizabeth Dias

Peter Turkson

Just a few years in the past, Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana was on many shortlists to be the subsequent pope.

He was thought-about a favourite within the 2013 conclave that elected Pope Francis, and he labored intently with the pontiff on main points. However his star dimmed after Francis accepted his resignation from working a significant church workplace.

Cardinal Turkson, 76, continues to be thought-about among the many most outstanding African cardinals who may proceed Francis’ imaginative and prescient on social justice, financial equality and the surroundings. However he’s now given solely an out of doors shot.

In a 2017 overhaul of the Vatican forms, Francis saved him on as the pinnacle of the workplace for Selling Integral Human Growth, which grew to become a bigger and extra empowered division. The workplace adopted social justice, migration and environmental points key to Francis’ agenda and was thus seen as central. Cardinal Turkson represented the Vatican on the highest ranges all over the world, together with on the United Nations.

However an investigation into the workplace’s governance and operations was quickly adopted by Cardinal Turkson’s resignation. Cardinal Turkson framed it merely as the tip of his time period, however some Vatican observers took it as a damaging judgment on his administration means.

Born right into a household of 10 youngsters with a once-Methodist mom and a Muslim paternal uncle, he stated he discovered interfaith dialogue at house, and he went on to check in seminaries in Ghana and New York. A speaker of six languages, in accordance with a Vatican profile, Cardinal Turkson studied in Rome for a doctorate in scripture research. He climbed the ranks, grew to become an archbishop beneath John Paul II and headed up a Vatican workplace beneath Benedict XVI.

— Jason Horowitz

Matteo Zuppi

Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi of Italy, 69, stands out among the many contenders who replicate Francis’ view that the church ought to be consultant of and help the poor. Francis promoted this progressive native of Rome to the rank of cardinal in 2019 and assigned him a number of essential missions.

Cardinal Zuppi is intently tied to Sant’Egidio, a Catholic neighborhood recognized for its service to the poor and battle decision.

Vatican watchers say the group grew to become an more and more essential foyer beneath Francis, however that hyperlink has additionally raised issues that, if elected pope, he could be overly influenced by the group.

In 2015, Francis named him archbishop of Bologna, probably the most essential posts in Italy. There, Don Matteo, as he’s recognized, continued to work with poor folks and migrants. “Welcoming migrants is a historic problem for Europe,” he has stated. “Christ invitations us to not flip away.” And lately, Francis appointed Cardinal Zuppi to the important thing function of envoy for Ukraine issues.

He has additionally been welcoming to L.G.B.T. Catholics, writing the preface for the Italian version of the Rev. James Martin’s 2017 ebook, “Constructing a Bridge,” which referred to as for the church to seek out new pastoral methods of ministering to homosexual folks.

— Elisabetta Povoledo