Aleem Maqbool
BBC Religion Editor
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Pope Candidates (Left to Right) Peter Codwar’s Cardinal Appia Turkson, Peter Parolin, Cardinal Louis Antonio Gokim Tagle, and Cardinal Fridrin Ambongo Beschung
Who will be the next Pope? This decision could have a major impact on the Catholic Church and the 1.4 billion baptized Roman Catholics around the world.
It also promises to be a very unpredictable and open process for many reasons.
Cardinal of Colleges meet and discuss at the Conclave in Sistine Chapel and vote for the candidates they wish to win until a single name wins.
With 80% of the Cards appointed by Pope Francis himself, they not only elected the Pope for the first time, but also offer a wide range of global perspectives.
For the first time in history, less than half of those given a vote will be Europeans.
And while the university may be dominated by his appointment, they were not exclusively “progressive” or “traditionalists.”
For these reasons, it is more difficult than ever to predict who will be elected the next Pope.
Can the Cardinals elect an African or an Asian Pope, or will they support one of the old hands of the Vatican regime?
There is a choice of names mentioned as a potential successor to Frances, but we hope that more names will appear in the coming days.
Pietro Parolin
Nationality: Italian
Age: 70
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Spoken quietly, Italian Cardinal Parolin was the Vatican Secretary of State under Pope Francis and made him the Pope’s chief advisor. The Secretary of State also leads the Church’s central administration, Rome Curia.
After acting effectively as the Vice Pope, he could be considered the front line.
He is seen as likely to prioritize diplomacy and global outlook over the purity of Catholic doctrine. His critics consider the issue, and his supporters see strength.
However, he was critical of the legalization of same-sex marriages around the world, calling for a landmark vote in 2015 in favor of “human defeat” in the Republic of Ireland.
The bookmaker may betray him, but Cardinal Parolin is probably well aware of what the old Italians say, highlighting the uncertainty of the Pope’s picking process.
Of the previous 266 popes, about 213 were Italian, and although there was no Italian pope in 40 years, the pivot of Upper Echelon, a church away from Italy and Europe, may mean that there may not be anything else for now.
Lewis Antonio Gokim Tag
Nationality: Philippines
Age: 67
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Can Cardinal Tagle be the first Asian Pope? Unlike Parolyn, he has decades of idyllic experience. This means that he was an active church leader among people, in contrast to the Vatican or church law expert diplomats.
The church has a great influence in the Philippines, where approximately 80% of its population is Catholic. The country currently has five members of Cardinals University recorded. This could be a key lobbyist if he betrays the Tagle Cardinal.
He is considered moderate within the definition of Catholicism, and is called “Asian Francis” because of his dedication to social issues and sympathy for immigrants he shared with the late Pope.
He opposes abortion rights and calls them “forms of murder.” This is a position that follows the Church’s broader attitude of life beginning with conception. He also spoke to euthanasia.
However, in 2015, when he was the archbishop of Manila, Cardinal Tugle called on the church to reassess the “severe” attitude towards gay, divorced and single mothers, and left people who felt that past harshness had lasting harm, leaving each individual worthy of compassion and respect.
Cardinal was considered a candidate for Pope until the 2013 Conclave, when Francis was elected in 2013.
Asked how he saw the next suggestion he could make, he replied: “I treat it like a joke! It’s funny.”
Fridrin Ambongo Zungo
Nationality: Congo
Age: 65
AFP
It is very likely that the next Pope will come from Africa. The Catholic Church continues to add millions of members. Cardinal Ambongo is a leading candidate from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
He was the Archbishop of Kinshasa and was appointed Cardinal intivenal by Pope Francis for seven years.
He is a cultural conservative for same-sex marriage and opposes the blessing of same-sex marriage, saying that “unions of same-sex people are considered to be inherently contradicting cultural norms and evil.”
Christianity is the majority religion of the DRC, but Christians there face death and persecution at the hands of rebels associated with the Islamic state of jihadist groups. Against this background, Cardinal Ambongo is considered a fierce defender of the Church.
However, in a 2020 interview, he agreed with religious pluralism, saying, “Let’s make Protestants Protestants and Muslims. We’ll work with them. But everyone has to protect their identity.”
Such comments may wonder if some cardinals are fully embracing their sense of mission – Catholics want to spread the word of the church all over the world.
Peter Kodow Appia Turkson
Nationality: Ghanaian
Age: 76
Reuters
If chosen from his peers, the influential cardinal crading Turkson would likewise have the distinction of being the first African pope of 1,500 years.
Like Cardinal Ambongo, he insists that he doesn’t want a job. “I don’t know if anyone wants to become Pope,” he told the BBC in 2013.
Asked if there was a good incident in which Africa offers the next pope based on the growth of the church on the continent, he said he felt that the pope should not be chosen based on statistics, as “these types of considerations tend to muddy the water.”
He was the first Ghanaian to become a cardinal under Pope John Paul II in 2003.
Like the Tagle Cardinal, the Turkson Cardinal was considered a potential pope 10 years after Francis was chosen. In fact, the bookmakers have made him a favorite before the vote.
The guitarist Turkson Cardinal, who once played in funk bands, is known for his energetic presence.
Like many cardinals in Africa, he is conservatively leaning. However, he opposes the criminalization of gay relations in African countries, including his hometown of Ghana.
In a 2023 BBC interview, Ghanaian parliament was discussing a bill that would impose severe penalties on LGBTQ+ people, but Turkson said he felt that homosexuality should not be treated as a crime.
In 2012, he was accused of making predictions at the Vatican Bishops’ Conference of fearing the spread of Islam in Europe, and later apologized.
