With Pope Francis’ rapidly declining health, it may be time to look at his potential succession.
Full disclosure: I am not Catholic, nor do I identify with any denomination or religion. This is simply a brief overview at the candidates through my own (albeit biased) research.
Mario Grech (Malta, 66) * Progressive * Young (relatively) * Likely Pope Francis’ fav * Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops since 2020 * 9/10
Antonio Tagle (Philippines, 65) * Inoffensive, moderate * Would likely want to keep the status quo * described as a Papabile, meaning he’s a likely candidate * Lots of support from East Asia * 7/10
Matteo Zuppi (Europe, 76) * Progressive * Few notable achievements. * This would likely be an uneventful papacy * Said to be a great priest, and a great speaker. * 7/10
Marc Ouellet * Generally moderate * Support from South America * sexual assault allegations * 6/10
Peter Turkson (Africa, 74) * Proponent of Inter-religious dialogue * conservative * 5/10
Christoph Schönborn (Europe, 78) * Has ran twice before * unlikely winner * Not liked by peers * 4/10
Péter Erdö (Europe, age: 71) * Conservative * Wants to improve relations with the eastern Orthodox church * 4/10
Pietro Parolin (Europe, 68) * He is the other main Papabile, along with Tagle. * Pope Francis’ second-in-command * Secretary of State of the Vatican * Thought to be power hungry * 3/10
Óscar Rodriguez Maradiaga * Honduran * also a Latin American choice * Accused of financial mismanagement * Claimed church sexual abuse was a “Jewish Conspiracy” * 3/10
Robert Sarah (Africa, 77) * VERY conservative * MAGA guy * 1/10
uscatholic.org This is where I got the candidates names. The information was clearly quite biased.
respective Wikipedia entries I tried not to pull anything that didn’t have a clear citation.
press.vatican.va official vatican site.