Who would be the subsequent pope? Meet a few of the cardinals thought of high contenders

VATICAN CITY, — A preferred saying in Vatican circles is that for those who “enter a conclave as pope, you permit as a cardinal.”

It implies the sacred and secretive course of is not any reputation contest or marketing campaign, however relatively the divinely impressed election of Christ’s Vicar on Earth by the princes of the church.

Nonetheless, there are all the time front-runners, referred to as “papabile,” who’ve not less than a few of the qualities thought of essential to be pope — very similar to these depicted in final 12 months’s Oscar-nominated movie “Conclave.”

Any baptized Catholic male is eligible, although solely cardinals have been chosen since 1378. The winner should obtain not less than two-thirds of the vote from these cardinals beneath age 80 and thus eligible to take part. Pope Francis, who died Monday, appointed the overwhelming majority of electors, typically tapping males who share his pastoral priorities, which suggests continuity relatively than rupture.

Anybody attempting to handicap the result ought to keep in mind that Jorge Mario Bergoglio was thought of too previous to be elected pope in 2013 at age 76, and that Karol Wojtyla wasn’t on any front-runner lists going into the 1978 conclave that elected him Pope John Paul II.

Some attainable candidates:

Erdo, 72, the archbishop of Budapest and primate of Hungary, was twice elected head of the Council of European Episcopal Conferences, in 2005 and 2011, suggesting he enjoys the esteem of European cardinals who make up the most important voting bloc of electors. In that capability, Erdo obtained to know many African cardinals as a result of the council hosts common periods with African bishops’ conferences. Erdo had much more publicity when he helped set up Francis’ 2014 and 2015 Vatican conferences on the household and delivered key speeches, in addition to throughout papal visits to Budapest in 2021 and 2023.

Marx, 71, the archbishop of Munich and Freising, was chosen by Francis as a key adviser in 2013. Marx later was named to move the council overseeing Vatican funds throughout reforms and belt-tightening. The previous president of the German bishops’ convention was a powerful proponent of the controversial “synodal path” means of dialogue within the German church that started in 2020 as a response to the clergy sexual abuse scandal there. Consequently, he’s considered with skepticism by conservatives who thought of the method a risk to church unity, given it concerned debating points equivalent to celibacy, homosexuality and girls’s ordination. Marx made headlines in 2021 when he dramatically supplied to resign as archbishop to atone for the German church’s dreadful abuse file, however Francis rapidly rejected the resignation and instructed him to remain.

Ouellet, 80, of Canada, led the Vatican’s influential bishops workplace for over a decade, overseeing the important thing clearinghouse for potential candidates to move dioceses around the globe. Francis stored Ouellet within the job till 2023, regardless that he was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI, and thus helped choose the extra doctrinaire bishops most well-liked by the German pontiff. Thought of extra of a conservative than Francis, Ouellet nonetheless chosen pastorally minded bishops to mirror Francis’ perception that bishops ought to “odor just like the sheep” of their flock. Ouellet defended priestly celibacy for the Latin Ceremony church and upheld the ban on girls’s ordination however referred to as for ladies to have a higher position in church governance. He has good contacts with the Latin American church, having headed the Vatican’s Pontifical Fee for Latin America for over a decade. Since 2019, his workplace has taken cost of investigating bishops accused of protecting up for predator monks, a job that may have made him no buddies amongst these sanctioned but in addition might have given him plenty of in any other case confidential and presumably compromising details about fellow cardinals.

Parolin, 70, of Italy, has been Francis’ secretary of state since 2014 and is taken into account one of many essential contenders to be pope, given his prominence within the Catholic hierarchy. The veteran diplomat oversaw the Holy See’s controversial cope with China over bishop nominations and was concerned — however not charged — within the Vatican’s botched funding in a London actual property enterprise that led to a 2021 trial of one other cardinal and 9 others. A former ambassador to Venezuela, Parolin is aware of the Latin American church nicely. He can be seen as somebody who would proceed in Francis’ custom however as a extra sober and timid diplomatic insider, returning an Italian to the papacy after three successive outsiders: St. John Paul II (Poland); Benedict (Germany) and Francis (Argentina). However whereas Parolin has managed the Vatican forms, he has no actual pastoral expertise. His ties to the London scandal, by which his workplace misplaced tens of tens of millions of {dollars} to unhealthy offers and shady businessmen, might rely in opposition to him.

The thought of an American pope has lengthy been taboo, given the geopolitical energy already wielded by the USA. However the Chicago-born Prevost, 69, could possibly be a primary. He has in depth expertise in Peru, first as a missionary after which an archbishop, and he’s presently prefect of the Vatican’s highly effective dicastery for bishops, in control of vetting nominations for bishops around the globe. Francis clearly had a watch on him for years and despatched him to run the diocese of Chiclayo, Peru, in 2014. He held that place till 2023, when Francis introduced him to Rome for his present position. Prevost can also be president of the Pontifical Fee for Latin America, a job that retains him in common contact with the Catholic hierarchy within the a part of the world that also counts essentially the most Catholics. Along with his nationality, Prevost’s comparative youth might rely in opposition to him if his brother cardinals don’t need to decide to a pope who would possibly reign for an additional twenty years.

Sarah, 79, of Guinea, the retired head of the Vatican’s liturgy workplace, was lengthy thought of the perfect hope for an African pope. Beloved by conservatives, Sarah would sign a return to the doctrinaire and liturgically minded papacies of John Paul II and Benedict. Sarah, who had beforehand headed the Vatican’s charity workplace Cor Unum, clashed on a number of events with Francis, none extra significantly than when he and Benedict co-authored a e book advocating the “necessity” of continued celibacy for Latin Ceremony monks. The e book got here out as Francis was weighing whether or not to permit married monks within the Amazon to deal with a priest scarcity there. The implication was that Sarah had manipulated Benedict into lending his identify and ethical authority to a e book that had all of the appearances of being a counterweight to Francis’ personal instructing. Francis dismissed Benedict’s secretary and a number of other months later retired Sarah after he turned 75. Even Sarah’s supporters lamented the episode damage his papal probabilities.

RELATED: Cardinal Robert Sarah: What to know concerning the potential Pope front-runner

Schoenborn, 80, the archbishop of Vienna, Austria, was a pupil of Benedict’s, and thus on paper appears to have the doctrinaire tutorial chops to attraction to conservatives. Nevertheless, he turned related to one in every of Francis’ most controversial strikes by defending his outreach to divorced and civilly remarried Catholics as an “natural growth of doctrine,” not the rupture that some conservatives contended. Schoenborn’s mother and father divorced when he was a teen, so the problem is private. He additionally took warmth from the Vatican when he criticized its previous refusal to sanction high-ranking sexual abusers, together with his predecessor as archbishop of Vienna. Schoenborn has expressed help for civil unions and girls as deacons, and was instrumental in enhancing the 1992 replace of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the handbook of the church’s instructing that Benedict had spearheaded when he headed the Vatican’s doctrine workplace.

Tagle, 67, of the Philippines, would look like Francis’ choose for the primary Asian pope. Francis introduced the favored archbishop of Manila to Rome to move the Vatican’s missionary evangelization workplace, which serves the wants of the Catholic Church in a lot of Asia and Africa. His position took on higher weight when Francis reformed the Vatican forms and raised the significance of his evangelization workplace. Tagle typically cites his Chinese language lineage – his maternal grandmother was a part of a Chinese language household that moved to the Philippines — and he’s identified for changing into emotional when discussing his childhood. Although he has pastoral, Vatican and administration expertise — he headed the Vatican’s Caritas Internationalis federation of charity teams earlier than coming to Rome completely — Tagle can be on the younger facet to be elected pope for all times, with cardinals maybe preferring an older candidate whose papacy can be extra restricted.

Zuppi, 69, the archbishop of Bologna and president of the Italian bishops convention, elected in 2022, is intently affiliated with the Sant’Egidio Neighborhood, a Rome-based Catholic charity that was influential beneath Francis, notably in interfaith dialogue. Zuppi was a part of Sant’Egidio’s staff that helped negotiate the tip of Mozambique’s civil warfare within the Nineties and was named Francis’ peace envoy for Russia’s warfare in Ukraine. Francis made him a cardinal in 2019 and later made clear he needed him in control of Italy’s bishops, an indication of his admiration for the prelate who, like Francis, is called a “road priest.” In one other signal of his progressive leanings and closeness to Francis, Zuppi wrote the introduction to the Italian version of “Constructing a Bridge,” by the Rev. James Martin, an American Jesuit, concerning the church’s want to enhance its outreach to the LGBTQ+ neighborhood. Zuppi can be a candidate in Francis’ custom of ministering to these on the margins, though his relative youth would rely in opposition to him for cardinals searching for a brief papacy. His household had sturdy institutional ties: Zuppi’s father labored for the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, and his mom was the niece of Cardinal Carlo Confalonieri, dean of the Faculty of Cardinals within the Sixties and Nineteen Seventies.