Pope Francis died in the early hours of Easter Monday, one day after his Easter sermon, assisted by thousands of people in the Plaza de San Pedro.
For many, Francisco, the first non -European Pope in more than 1,200 years, was considered a reformer. A label that was not applied to his predecessor, Benedict XVI, whose real name was Josef Ratzinger.
Ratzinger, who became the first German Pope on April 19, 2005, made history when he voluntarily resigned. After his resignation, he lived an isolated life in the Mater Ecclesiae monastery in the Vatican gardens until his death in 2022.
Francis described Ratzinger as a “noble and kind person” when he died ten years after his resignation. Chancellor Olaf Scholz called him a “formative figure” in the church, a “combative personality and a wise theologian.”
However, Ratzinger’s pontificate was not free of controversy. Unlike Francis, he opposed the modernization of the Church, following the steps of the previous Pope, which earned him many criticisms.
His mandate was also inaugurated by an abuse scandal. He was accused of misconduct in the treatment of abuse cases when he was the archbishop of Munich and Freisburg, who immersed the Catholic Church in a crisis.
What follows?
After a nine -day mourning period and Francisco’s funeral, known as the novel, the Catholic Church will organize the next conclave. The mysterious process, which is not open to the public, will take place in the Sistine Chapel in Rome.
Here, the Cardinals College will meet to choose the next head of the Church. The rules, in force since January 22, 2025, claim that there are 138 voters for a total of 252 cardinals. Only those under 80 years of age can participate in a secret scrutiny.
Four daily voting rounds are made until a cardinal receives the majority of two thirds of the votes. The process usually lasts 15 to 20 days. There are no rules for the duration of a conclave: in 1939, the conclave that Pope Pius XII chose lasted only one day. The longest conclave of which there was a record in 1268 in Viterbo, Italy, and lasted nine years.
Pope Francis was chosen after five scrutiny in two days, and Benedict XVI after four scrutiny in two days.
The Catholic Church does not have a supreme leader until a new Pope is chosen, with the Cardinian University to jointly assume ecclesiastical issues during this period.
Who are the candidates?
There are three German cardinals who will participate in the conclave in Rome: Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, the cardinal of Munich Reinhard Marx and Cardinal of Colonia Rainer Maria Woelki.
The three are not considered daddy, that is, candidates for potatoes. However, the process has not yet been completed. Cardinal Marx from Munich, a theologian who worked closely with Pope Francis, may have been considered a candidate until a few years ago.
The 71 -year -old man was one of the most powerful clergy of the European Church, but the way he considered the cases of sexual abuse attracted the criticisms of the experts. In 2021, he offered his resignation as a archbishop of Munich and releasing Francis, who rejected him.
Cardinal Peter Erddo
Erddo, 72, Archbishop of Budapest and Hungry Primate, was elected twice president of the European Council of the Episcopal Conference in 2005 and 2011, which suggests that he enjoys the esteem of European cardinals who constitute the largest block of voters.
ADVERTISINGIn this quality, Erdo has met many African cardinals because the Council organizes regular sessions with African episcopal conferences.
Cardeal Reinhard Marx
Former president of the 71 -year -old German Episcopal Conference, was a strong defender of the controversial dialogue process of “union form” in the German church, which began in 2020 in response to the scandal of the clergy scandal.
For this reason, conservatives see it with skepticism that they consider that the process is a threat to the unity of the Church, since it implies the debate of issues such as celibacy, homosexuality and the order of women.
Marx arrived at the headlines in 2021 when he offered to renounce the post of Archbishop to atone for the terrible history of abuse of the German church, but Francis rejected the resignation and told him to stay.
ADVERTISINGCARDEAL MARC OUELLET
Ollet, 80, from Canada, directed the influential episcopal office of the Vatican for more than a decade, supervising the main selection center of potential candidates to direct dioceses worldwide.
Francisco maintained or ordered in office until 2023, although he was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI, so he helped select the most doctrinal bishops preferred by the German pontiff.
Considered more conservative than Francis, Ouellet also selected bishops with a pastoral spirit to reflect the belief of Pope Francis that bishops must “smell like the sheep” of his flock.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin
Parolin, 70, from Italy, has been Francisco’s Secretary of State since 2014 and is considered one of the main candidates for potatoes, given his prominence in the Catholic hierarchy.
ADVERTISINGThe veteran diplomatic supervised the controversial agreement of the Holy See with China on the appointment of bishops and was involved, but was not accused of the failed investment of the Vatican in real estate development in London, which led to a trial in 2021 of another cardinal and nine others.
Former ambassador to Venezuela, Parolin knows the American Latin Church well. It would be seen as someone who would continue in Francis’s tradition, but as a more sober and shy diplomat, returning an Italian to the papacy after three excessive strangers: San Juan Pablo II (Poland), Benedict XVI (Germany) and Francisco (Argentina).
CARDEAL ROBERT Prevost
The idea of an American Pope was a long time, given the geopolitical power already exercised by the United States. But Premost, 69, born in Chicago, could be the first.
He has a vast experience in Peru, first as a missionary and later as Archbishop, and is currently mayor of the powerful Dicker for the Bishops of the Vatican, responsible for verifying nominations for bishops around the world.
ADVERTISINGFrancisco had clearly looking at him for years and sent him to direct the Diocese of Chiclayo, Peru, in 2014.
He occupied this position until 2023, when Francis brought him to Rome to his current role.
Cardinal Robert Sarah
Sarah, 79, from Guinea, remote boss of the Vatican Liturgy Office, was considered for a long time the best hope for an African Pope.
Adored by the conservatives, Sarah would finally return doctrinal and liturgical of John Paul II and Bento.
ADVERTISINGSarah, who previously directed the beneficial organization of the Vatican, Color Unum, was in conflict several times with Pope Francis, no more seriously than when he and Pope Bento were co -authors of a book that defended the “need” to continue the celibacy of the priests of Latin Rite.
The book was published when Francis was considering the possibility of allowing the presence of married priests in the Amazon to face the shortage of priests in that country.
Cardeal Christoph Schoenborn
Schoenborn, 80, Archbishop of Vienna, Austria, was a student of Pope Benedict XVI and, therefore, on paper, seems to have the doctrinal academic qualities necessary to attract conservatives.
However, he associated with one of Pope Francis’s most controversial movements to defend his approach to divorced and civilly recreated Catholics as an “organic doctrine development”, not the rest that some conservatives defended.
ADVERTISINGSchoenborn’s parents divorced when he was a teenager, so the question is personal.
It was also the objective of Vatican’s criticism when he criticized his refusal to sanction high -level sexual abusers, including his predecessor as a archbishop of Vienna.
Cardinal Luis Tagle
Tagle, 67, of the Philippines, seems to be the choice of Pope Francis for the first Asian pontiff.
Francis brought Manila’s popular archbishop to Rome to direct the Vatican Missionary Evangelization Office, which meets the needs of the Catholic Church in much of Asia and Africa.
ADVERTISINGHis role gained greater weight when Francisco renewed the bureaucracy of the Vatican and increased the importance of his evangelization office.
Tagle often quotes his Chinese lineage, his maternal grandmother was part of a Chinese family who moved to the Philippines, and it is known that he is delighted when he speaks of his childhood.
