On May 7, 133 cardinal voters will close in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, and to begin the secret election process of the Secret Pope.
Although much of the process is wrapped in mystery, it is known that four voting rounds are carried out daily until a cardinal receives the majority of two thirds of the votes.
The process generally lasts between 15 and 20 days.
But, a week since the beginning of the election process of the new Bishop of Rome, which cardinals are pointed out as “Papabiles” to lead the Roman Catholic Church?
Cardinal Pietro Parolin
The 70 -year -old was the Secretary of State of Pope Francis, which essentially makes him the Prime Minister of Santa Headquarters. Although intimately associated with the pontificate of Pope Francis, Parolin has a much more modest personality and a diplomatic leadership approach than the Argentine Jesuit who served and knows where the Catholic Church may need a correction of the course.
Parolin supervised the controversial agreement of Santa Head with China on the appointment of bishops and was involved, but was not accused of the failed investment of the Vatican in a real estate company in London that led to the loss of millions of euros.
Parolin, who was appointed Cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI, knows the American Latin Church well and played a key role in the decancing between the United States and Cuba in 2014 that the Vatican helped to facilitate.
Although he is a veteran of the Vatican, he has very little pastoral experience. He entered the seminar at 14, four years after his father died in a traffic accident. After his order in 1980, he spent two years as a pastor near his hometown in northern Italy, but then went to Rome to study and entered the Vatican diplomatic service, where he has remained since then.
If he is chosen, he would put an Italian again in the papacy, after three successive strangers: San Juan Pablo II (Poland), Benedict XVI (Germany) and Francisco (Argentina).
CARDEAL LUIS ANTONIO TAGLE
Tagle, 67, is on the lists of many betting runners to be the first Asian Pope, an election that would recognize a part of the world where the church is growing.
Pope Francis brought to Rome the popular archbishop of Manila, who was appointed Cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI, to direct the Missionary Evangelization Office of the Vatican, which meets the needs of the Catholic Church in much of Asia and Africa.
His role gained greater weight when Pope Francis reformed the bureaucracy of the Vatican.
Although he has pastoral, Vatican and management experience, Tagle would be a bit young to be elected Pope, and the cardinals prefer a major candidate whose papacy would be more limited.
However, Tagle is known as a good communicator and teacher, fundamental attributes for a Pope.
Careal Fridin Ambono Besgung
Ambongo, 65, was appointed Cardinal by Pope Francis and is one of the most frank Catholic leaders in Africa, leading the archdiocese that has the greatest number of Catholics in the continent and is seen as the future of the Church.
ADVERTISINGHe has been archbishop of the capital of Congo since 2018 and cardinal since 2019.
Pope Francis also appointed him for a group of counselors who were helping to reorganize the bureaucracy of the Vatican. In the Congo and throughout Africa, Ambongo has been deeply committed to Catholic orthodoxy and is seen as conservative.
In 2024, he signed a statement in the name of the episcopal conferences of Africa and Madagascar, refusing to follow the statement of Pope Francis that allowed priests to offer blessings to same -sex couples, which constituted a dissent at the continental level of papal teaching.
The reprimand crystallized both the line of the African church on the LGBTQ+ range and Ambongo’s height within the African hierarchy.
ADVERTISINGCARDAL MATTO ZUPPI
Zuppi, 69, emerged as a priest from the street to the image of Pope Francis, who promoted it quickly; First, the archbishop of the rich archdiocese of Bologna, in northern Italy, in 2015, before granting the title of Cardinal in 2019.
It is closely linked to the community of Sant’Egídio, an institution of Catholic Charity based in Rome that influenced Pope Francis, particularly in the interreligious dialogue.
Zuppi was part of the Sant’Egidio team that helped negotiate the end of the Mozambique Civil War in the 1990s and was appointed Pope Francis sent to peace in the Russian war in Ukraine.
He traveled to kyiv and Moscow after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked Holy See to help the release of 19,000 Ukrainian children taken from their families and taken to Russia during the war.
ADVERTISINGThe mission also took him to China and the United States.
Zuppi would be a candidate in the tradition of Pope Francis to minister those who are on the sidelines, although his relative youth can tell the cardinals looking for a short papacy.
Peter Cardeal Forest
Known by his classmates as a serious, academic and educator, Erdő, 72, is one of the main candidates among conservatives.
He has been Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest since 2002 and was appointed Cardinal by Juan Pablo II the following year.
ADVERTISINGHe participated in two agrees, in 2005 and 2013, for the selection of Papes Bento XVI and Francisco.
With doctorates in theology and canon law, Erdő speaks six languages, is a defender of doctrinal orthodoxy and defends the positions of the Church on issues such as abortion and the same sex marriage.
Erdő opposes same -sex unions and has also resisted suggestions that Catholics who return to marry after divorce can receive communion.
In 2015, he declared that divorced Catholics should only receive communion if they had sexually abstinent in their new marriage.
ADVERTISINGThe defender of traditional family structures helped organize Pope Francis’s meetings about the family in 2014 and 2015 in the Vatican.
Although he has been careful to avoid participating in the often tumultuous political life of Hungary, Erdő has maintained a close relationship with the government of the right of the country, which gives generous subsidies to the Christian churches.
However, it has been shown that it is reluctant to take positions on various government policies that divided Hungarian society, such as public campaigns that varnish migrants and refugees and laws that corroded the rights of LGBTQ+communities.
