Who are the contenders to be pope? They include a theologian, a diplomat and a simple street priest

Desired A holy man Job description Leading the billion-strong Catholic Church Location Vatican City There are no official candidates for the papacy but a few cardinals are considered papabile or possessing the characteristics necessary to become pope After St John Paul II broke the centurieslong Italian hold on the papacy in the field of contenders has broadened considerably When the cardinals enter the Sistine Chapel on May to choose a successor to Pope Francis the first pontiff from Latin America they will be looking above all for a holy man who can guide the Catholic Church Beyond that they will weigh his administrative and pastoral experience and consider what the church demands in the current era Here is a selection of feasible contenders in no particular order The list will be updated as cardinals continue their closed-door preconclave discussions Cardinal Pietro Parolin Date of Birth Jan Nationality Italian Position Vatican secretary of state under Francis Experience Veteran Vatican diplomat Made a cardinal by Francis The -year-old veteran diplomat was Francis secretary of state essentially the Holy See s prime minister Though associated closely with Francis pontificate Parolin is much more demure in personality and diplomatic in his approach to leading than the Argentine Jesuit he served and he knows where the Catholic Church might need a program correction Parolin oversaw the Holy See s controversial deal with China over bishop nominations and was involved but not charged in the Vatican s botched funding in a London real estate venture that led to a trial of another cardinal and nine others A former ambassador to Venezuela Parolin knows the Latin American church well and played a key role in the U S -Cuba detente which the Vatican helped facilitate If he were elected he would return an Italian to the papacy after three successive outsiders St John Paul II Poland Pope Benedict XVI Germany and Francis Argentina But Parolin has very little pastoral experience He entered the seminary at age four years after his father was killed in a car accident After his ordination he spent two years as a parish priest near his hometown in northern Italy but then went to Rome to evaluation and entered the Vatican diplomatic system where he has remained ever since He has served at Vatican embassies in Nigeria Mexico and Venezuela He is widely respected for his diplomatic finesse on specific of the thorniest dossiers facing the Catholic Church He has long been involved in the China file and he played a hands-on role in the Holy See s diplomatic rapprochement with Vietnam that resulted in an agreement to establish a resident Vatican representative in the country Parolin was also the Vatican s point-person in its frustrated efforts to end the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East He has tried to make the church s voice heard as the Trump administration began working to end Russia s war in Ukraine Let s hope we can arrive at a peace that in order to be solid lasting must be a just peace must involve all the actors who are at stake and take into account the principles of international law and the UN declarations he noted Parolin might find the geopolitical reality ushered in by the Trump administration somewhat unreceptive to the Holy See s soft power By Nicole Winfield in Vatican City Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle Date of Birth June Nationality Filipino Position Pro-Prefect Dicastery for Evangelization under Francis Experience Former archbishop of Manila Philippines Made a cardinal by Benedict Tagle is on a multitude of bookmakers lists to be the first Asian pope a choice that would acknowledge a part of the world where the church is growing Francis brought the popular archbishop of Manila to Rome to head the Vatican s missionary evangelization office which serves the requirements of the Catholic Church in much of Asia and Africa His role took on greater weight when Francis reformed the Vatican bureaucracy Tagle often cites his Chinese heritage his maternal grandmother was part of a Chinese family that moved to the Philippines Though he has pastoral Vatican and management experience he headed the Vatican s Caritas Internationalis federation of charity groups before coming to Rome permanently Tagle would be on the young side to be elected pope with cardinals perhaps preferring an older candidate whose papacy would be more limited Tagle is known as a good communicator and lecturer key attributes for a pope The pope will have to do a lot of teaching we ll have to face the cameras all the time so if there will be a communicator pope that s very desirable commented Leo Ocampo a theology professor at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila That reported Tagle s tenure at Caritas was not without disagreement and certain have questioned his management skills In Francis ousted the Caritas management including demoting Tagle The Holy See mentioned an outside analysis had revealed real deficiencies in management that had affected staff morale at the Caritas secretariat in Rome By Jim Gomez in Manila Philippines and Nicole Winfield in Vatican City Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu Date of Birth Jan Nationality Congolese Position Archbishop of Kinshasa Congo Experience President of the bishops conferences of Africa and Madagascar Made a cardinal by Francis The -year-old Ambongo is one of Africa s the bulk outspoken Catholic leaders heading the archdiocese that has the largest number of Catholics on the continent that seen as the future of the church He has been archbishop of Congo s capital since and a cardinal since in Francis also appointed him to a group of advisers that was helping reorganize the Vatican bureaucracy In Congo and across Africa Ambongo has been deeply committed to the Catholic orthodoxy and is seen as conservative In he signed a report on behalf of the bishops conferences of Africa and Madagascar refusing to follow Francis declaration allowing priests to offer blessings to same-sex couples in what amounted to continent-wide dissent from a papal teaching The rebuke crystalized both the African church s line on LGBTQ outreach and Ambongo s stature within the African hierarchy He has received praise from selected in Congo for promoting interfaith tolerance especially on a continent where religious divisions between Christians and Muslims are common He is for the openness of the church to different cultures announced Monsignor Donatien Nshole secretary-general of the National Episcopal Conference of Congo who has long worked with Ambongo An outspoken governing body critic the cardinal is also known for his unwavering advocacy for social justice In a country with high poverty and hunger levels despite being rich in minerals and where fighting by rebel groups has killed thousands and displaced millions in one of the world s biggest humanitarian crises he frequently criticizes both regime corruption and inaction as well as the exploitation of the country s natural tools by foreign powers Congo is the plate from which everyone eats except for our people he reported last year during a speech at the Pontifical Antonianum University Ambongo s criticism of bureaucrats has drawn both citizens admiration and legal scrutiny Last year prosecutors ordered a judicial inquiry of him after accusing him of seditious behavior over his criticism of the cabinet s handling of the conflict in eastern Congo By Mark Banchereau in Dakar Senegal Cardinal Matteo Zuppi Date of Birth Oct Nationality Italian Current position Archbishop of Bologna Italy president of the Italian bishops conference Previous position Auxiliary bishop of Rome Made a cardinal by Francis Zuppi came up as a street priest in the image of Francis who promoted him hastily first to archbishop of the wealthy archdiocese of Bologna in northern Italy in before bestowing the title of cardinal in He is closely closely affiliated with the Sant Egidio Public a Rome-based Catholic charity that was influential under Francis particularly in interfaith dialogue Zuppi was part of Sant Egidio s club that helped negotiate the end of Mozambique s civil war in the s and was named Francis peace envoy for Russia s war in Ukraine He traveled to Kyiv and Moscow after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appealed to the Holy See for help in winning the release of Ukrainian children taken from their families and brought to Russia during the war The mission also took him to China and the United States After making him a cardinal Francis made clear he demanded him in charge of Italy s bishops a sign of his admiration for the prelate who like Francis is known as a street priest someone who prioritizes ministering to poor and homeless people and refugees Zuppi would be a candidate in Francis tradition of ministering to those on the margins although his relative youth would count against him for cardinals seeking a short papacy In a sign of his progressive leanings Zuppi wrote the introduction to the Italian edition of Building a Bridge by the Rev James Martin an American Jesuit about the church s need to improve its outreach to the LGBTQ public Zuppi wrote that building bridges with the population was a challenging process still unfolding He recognized that doing nothing on the other hand risks causing a great deal of suffering makes people feel lonely and often leads to the adoption of positions that are both contrasting and extreme Zuppi s family also has strong institutional ties His father worked for the Vatican newspaper L Osservatore Romano and his mother was the niece of Cardinal Carlo Confalonieri dean of the College of Cardinals in the s and s By Colleen Barry in Vatican City Cardinal P ter Erd Date of Birth June Nationality Hungarian Position Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest Hungary Past experience Twice elected head of the umbrella group of European bishops conferences Made a cardinal by John Paul Known by his peers as a serious theologian scholar and educator Erd is a leading contender among conservatives He has served as the archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest since and was made a cardinal by John Paul the following year He has participated in two conclaves in and for the selection of Benedict and Francis Holding doctorates in theology and canon law Erd speaks six languages is a proponent of doctrinal orthodoxy and champions the church s positions on issues like abortion and same-sex marriage Erd opposes same-sex unions and has also resisted suggestions that Catholics who remarry after divorce be able to receive communion He stated in that divorced Catholics should only be permitted communion if they remain sexually abstinent in their new marriage An advocate for traditional family structures he helped organize Francis and Vatican meetings on the family From to Erd served as president of the Council of European Bishops Conferences helping to foster collaboration among Catholic bishops across Europe and to address contemporary issues facing the church on the continent While careful to avoid taking part in Hungary s often tumultuous political life Erd has maintained a close relationship with the country s rightist populist executive which provides generous subsidies to Christian churches He has been reluctant to take positions on several of the regime s policies that divided society in Hungary such as population campaigns that villainized refugees and refugees and laws that eroded the rights of LGBTQ communities When hundreds of thousands of asylum-seekers entered Europe in fleeing war and deprivation in the Middle East and Africa Erd emphasized that the church had a Christian duty to provide humanitarian assistance to those in need but stopped short of the full-throated advocacy for foreigners that was one of Francis top priorities By Justin Spike in Budapest Hungary Associated Press religion coverage receives encouragement through the AP s collaboration with The Conversation US with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc The AP is solely 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