Who would be the subsequent pope? Meet a few of the cardinals thought-about prime contenders

VATICAN CITY, — A preferred saying in Vatican circles is that in case you “enter a conclave as pope, you allow as a cardinal.”

It implies the sacred and secretive course of is not any recognition 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 at all times front-runners, often known as “papabile,” who’ve not less than a few of the qualities thought-about essential to be pope — very like 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 making an attempt to handicap the result ought to do not forget that Jorge Mario Bergoglio was thought-about too outdated to be elected pope in 2013 at age 76, and that Karol Wojtyla wasn’t on any front-runner lists going into the 1978 conclave that elected him Pope John Paul II.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 doable 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 largest voting bloc of electors. In that capability, Erdo bought to know many African cardinals as a result of the council hosts common classes 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” strategy of dialogue within the German church that started in 2020 as a response to the clergy sexual abuse scandal there. Because of this, he’s seen with skepticism by conservatives who thought-about the method a menace to church unity, given it concerned debating points resembling celibacy, homosexuality and ladies’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 shortly rejected the resignation and advised 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 all over the world. 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 popular by the German pontiff. Thought-about extra of a conservative than Francis, Ouellet nonetheless chosen pastorally minded bishops to mirror Francis’ perception that bishops ought to “scent 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 girls to have a larger function 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 masking up for predator clergymen, a job that might have made him no pals amongst these sanctioned but additionally might have given him a number 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 fundamental 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 effectively. 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, wherein his workplace misplaced tens of tens of millions of {dollars} to dangerous offers and shady businessmen, might rely towards him.

The thought of an American pope has lengthy been taboo, given the geopolitical energy already wielded by the US. However the Chicago-born Prevost, 69, might be a primary. He has in depth expertise in Peru, first as a missionary after which an archbishop, and he’s at the moment prefect of the Vatican’s highly effective dicastery for bishops, in control of vetting nominations for bishops all over the world. Francis clearly had an eye fixed 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 function. Prevost can 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 probably the most Catholics. Along with his nationality, Prevost’s comparative youth might rely towards him if his brother cardinals don’t need to decide to a pope who would possibly reign for one more twenty years.

Sarah, 79, of Guinea, the retired head of the Vatican’s liturgy workplace, was lengthy thought-about one of the best 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 severely than when he and Benedict co-authored a ebook advocating the “necessity” of continued celibacy for Latin Ceremony clergymen. The ebook got here out as Francis was weighing whether or not to permit married clergymen within the Amazon to handle a priest scarcity there. The implication was that Sarah had manipulated Benedict into lending his title and ethical authority to a ebook that had all of the appearances of being a counterweight to Francis’ personal educating. 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 scholar of Benedict’s, and thus on paper appears to have the doctrinaire tutorial chops to enchantment to conservatives. Nonetheless, he grew to become related to one in all 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 difficulty 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 assist for civil unions and ladies as deacons, and was instrumental in enhancing the 1992 replace of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the handbook of the church’s educating that Benedict had spearheaded when he headed the Vatican’s doctrine workplace.

Tagle, 67, of the Philippines, would seem 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 function took on larger 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 turning 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 aspect 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 carefully 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 top of Mozambique’s civil struggle within the Nineteen Nineties and was named Francis’ peace envoy for Russia’s struggle 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 named a “avenue 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+ group. Zuppi can be a candidate in Francis’ custom of ministering to these on the margins, though his relative youth would rely towards him for cardinals searching for a brief papacy. His household had robust 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 Seventies.