After Pope Francis’ death, debates begin over his successor : NPR

As cardinals from all over the world begin to collect in Rome for Pope Francis’ funeral, conversations are already starting over his doubtless successor.

It is troublesome to know the way the 135 cardinals eligible to vote within the extremely secretive elections — known as the conclave — will negotiate to guide the Catholic Church after they start subsequent month, or how they are going to finally vote.

However under is a listing of a number of the best-known candidates who could also be into account.

Pietro Parolin

The present secretary of state for the Holy See, Parolin is an skilled Italian diplomat who has helped oversee the Vatican’s inside affairs but in addition labored on behalf of the Catholic Church all over the world in nations from Venezuela to Vietnam. He is carried out a variety of duties — supporting peace initiatives in Colombia in addition to constructing bridges with Chinese language authorities in Beijing. Maybe extra cautious than Francis, he has nonetheless largely supported the late pope’s agenda, and should thus have earned criticism from these within the church who had been against that agenda. His deal to present the Chinese language authorities authority over the appointment course of for bishops within the nation additionally created some detractors who stated it hamstrung the church’s potential to criticize human rights abuses. Parolin has, although, publicly criticized President Trump’s acknowledged plans to evict Palestinians from Gaza, and has beforehand spoken in regards to the Israeli-Palestinian battle at a number of worldwide venues. And as a local of northern Italy who speaks a number of languages together with French and Spanish, he may attraction to different Italian, French and Spanish cardinals voting within the conclave.

Matteo Zuppi

Zuppi has been serving since 2015 because the archbishop of Bologna, a metropolis in north central Italy, and was made a cardinal in 2019. He has additionally served in a diplomatic perform for the Vatican, tasked by the late pope in 2023 with main a peace mission to Ukraine, that concerned journey to Moscow in addition to Washington and Beijing. He belongs to a Catholic humanitarian group referred to as Sant’Egidio, and beforehand labored to mediate conflicts in a number of components of the world, together with Mozambique within the early Nineties and South Sudan extra just lately. He has appeared to comply with a equally progressive strategy as Francis, reaching out to members of the LGBTQ group and brazenly supporting migrants, with a transparent stance of assist for Francis’ efforts to uplift society’s most susceptible. Nevertheless, he has much less

expertise of Vatican governance and politics, and a few extra conservative-minded cardinals could view him as too near the late pope and way more more likely to be influenced by progressive actions throughout the broader Catholic Church.

Pierbattista Pizzaballa

Appointed to be a cardinal comparatively just lately by the late Pope Francis, Pizzaballa has served because the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem since 2020, the place he has devoted himself to a ministry in a area regularly mired by battle and humanitarian crises — most just lately on the middle of the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. He celebrated mass inside the one Catholic church in Gaza this previous Christmas, telling attendees that the complete Christian world was with them. He has advocated strongly for the rights of assorted Christian minorities throughout the Center East, and following the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023, he provided himself as a Hamas hostage to be swapped in return for Israeli youngsters who had been being held by the group inside Gaza. He has made few public positions on different controversial points contained in the Catholic Church, and is essentially faraway from Vatican politics as somebody who has served a lot of his ministry exterior his native Italy. His relative youth (he turned 60 this month), could lead some cardinals within the conclave to contemplate him too younger for the hold forth, however the truth he has usually averted taking positions on troublesome subjects could make it simpler for opposing conclave factions to contemplate him a extra impartial possibility for his or her vote.

Jose Tolentino de Mendonca

A Portuguese cardinal who has served because the prefect of the Dicastery for Tradition and Training, a comparatively new administration division contained in the church that focuses on selling cultural actions, heritage and the ideas of Catholic training. Born on the island

of Madeira, he spent a few of his early childhood in a former Portuguese colony that’s now the impartial African nation of Angola. He has written a number of volumes of poetry, studied the bible and held instructing positions earlier than taking up extra senior roles contained in the Vatican. Regardless of this broad expertise, nonetheless, he’s the youngest cardinal appointed by Francis, with whom he shares what’s extensively thought of to be a progressive worldview within the context of the Catholic Church. That has been exemplified by his assist for a high-profile feminist nun, who has supported abortion rights and referred to as for the ordination of feminine clergymen. Tolentino de Mendonca has additionally expressed his sympathy for a extra tolerant strategy to same-sex relationships than the Church has historically allowed, arguing on a number of events that the Vatican ought to interact extra willingly with cultural modifications and modernity.

Luis Antonio Tagle

A Filipino cardinal appointed by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012, Tagle has been thought of an in depth ally of Francis for a few years and shares lots of the late pope’s values, specifically in terms of acts of charity in essentially the most impoverished corners of the world. He beforehand led the church’s predominant charitable department, Caritas, although it was overhauled and he subsequently stepped down as its head. Since 2019 he has been tasked with overseeing the Vatican’s division for evangelization, which seeks to broaden the attain of Catholicism worldwide and has thus seen him work intently with native church leaders in growing nations. Because the Catholic Church continues to develop in Asia, in contrast to in Europe, the affect of bishops, archbishops and cardinals from the area has additionally elevated, and Tagle — who is thought informally as “Chito” — may signify the more than likely candidate for the primary ever Asian pope within the church’s two millennia. He was thought of a powerful candidate even way back to the final conclave in 2013, however for a lot of cardinals would have been thought of too younger. Since then he has additionally helped shepherd inside debates over usually divisive points within the church, equivalent to homosexuality and the potential of divorced or remarried Catholics receiving communion.

Fridolin Ambongo Besungu

As one in every of Africa’s main archbishops who serves within the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s capital of Kinshasa, Ambongo oversees an area trustworthy that now numbers round seven million, and has turn into a robust and sometimes political voice in his native nation. He has usually taken troublesome positions within the face of opposition from influential politicians or armed teams, by defending human rights and democracy. He belongs to a Catholic

non secular order generally known as the Capuchin Franciscans, an order that largely adheres to the teachings of St. Francis of Assisi — the person that served as a mannequin for the late pope, and impressed his selection of pontifical identify. He has been a cardinal since 2019, has taken a powerful and public stance in opposition to same-sex relationships, in step with the customarily conservative positions of many African church leaders, and was a number one member of a bunch of cardinals who opposed Francis’ choice in 2023 to permit clergymen to bless such relationships. But he remained near the late pope, and was chosen as one in every of 9 cardinals to function his shut advisors, making him a possible contender for the papacy as a result of he could attraction to a number of constituencies throughout the conclave that may quickly start.

Péter Erdő

A Hungarian professional in canon regulation and archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest for greater than 20 years, Erdő is a number one conservative candidate for the papacy and since he was made cardinal aged simply 50, he has usually taken robust positions on a variety of points that appear completely different to that of the late pope, together with on migration. He has typically appeared to ally himself with Hungary’s conservative president, Viktor Orban, and has beforehand stated welcoming refugees into the nation would equate to human trafficking — a stark distinction to Pope Francis’ compassionate assist for migration help teams throughout Europe. He isn’t generally known as essentially the most charismatic of audio system, however has voiced his opinions with much less ambiguity than many church leaders usually do, pushing for theological orthodoxy in his decade-long position as head of the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences. A printed scholar who can talk in a wide range of languages together with Russian, German, Italian, French, Spanish and English, he maintains extremely conventional views on marriage and household, in addition to LGBTQ rights, and could be a papal candidate who would proceed to view Europe as a central aspect within the Church’s future.