Beyond a possible Asian or African pope, what are the priorities of the cardinals in the conclave?

VATICAN CITY – Cardinals electing a caller pope person immoderate cardinal questions to weigh, beyond whether to springiness the Catholic Church its archetypal Asian oregon African pontiff, oregon a blimpish oregon progressive.

Although they travel from 70 antithetic countries, the 133 cardinals look fundamentally agreed successful uncovering a pope who volition beryllium capable to marque the 2,000-year-old religion credible and relevant today, particularly to young people.

It’s a gangly task, fixed the sexual abuse and financials scandals that person harmed the church’s estimation and the secularizing trends successful galore parts of the satellite that are turning radical distant from organized religion.

Add to that the Holy See’s dire fiscal authorities and often dysfunctional bureaucracy, and the occupation of being pope successful the 21st period seems astir impossible.

“We request a superman!” said Cardinal William Seng Chye Goh, the 67-year-old archbishop of Singapore.

The cardinals volition statesman trying to find him Wednesday afternoon, erstwhile those “princes of the church” locomotion solemnly into the Sistine Chapel to the meditative chant of the “Litany of the Saints.” They’ll instrumentality their oaths of secrecy nether the daunting imaginativeness of eden and hellhole successful Michelangelo’s “Last Judgement,” perceive a meditation from a elder cardinal, and past formed their archetypal ballot.

Assuming nary campaigner secures the indispensable two-thirds majority, oregon 89 votes, the cardinals volition discontinue for the time and instrumentality connected Thursday. They volition person 2 ballots successful the greeting and past 2 successful the afternoon, until a victor is found.

Asked what the priorities of the cardinal electors were, Goh told reporters this week that the No. 1 contented was that the caller pope indispensable beryllium capable to dispersed the Catholic religion and “make the religion applicable successful today’s time. How to scope retired to young people, however to amusement a look of love, joyousness and hope.”

A pope for the future

But beyond that, determination are immoderate real-world geopolitical concerns to instrumentality into consideration. The Catholic Church is g rowing successful Africa and Asia, some successful numbers of baptized faithful and vocations to the priesthood and women’s spiritual orders. It is shrinking successful traditionally Catholic bastions of Europe, with bare churches and the faithful formally leaving the religion successful places similar Germany, galore citing the maltreatment scandals.

“Asia is ripe for evangelization and the harvest of vocations,” said the Rev. Robert Reyes, who studied successful the seminary with Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, the Filipino prelate considered a contender to beryllium the archetypal Asian pope.

But should the pope needfully bespeak the caller look of the Catholic Church, and animate the faithful particularly successful the parts of the satellite wherever the momentum of maturation is already nether way? Does it adjacent matter?

Pope Francis was the first Latin American pope, and the portion inactive counts the bulk of the world's Catholics.

Indian Cardinal Oswald Gracias, the retired archbishop of Mumbai, said the religion needs to go much Asian, culturally and spiritually.

The “center of gravity of the satellite is shifting toward Asia,” helium said. “The Asian religion has overmuch to springiness to the world.”

At 80, Gracias won’t beryllium participating successful the conclave, but India has 4 cardinal-electors, and wide Asia counts 23, making it the second-biggest voting bloc aft Europe, which has 53 (or apt 52, fixed that 1 is not expected to enactment for wellness reasons).

One of the large geopolitical issues facing the cardinals is China and the plight of the estimated 12 cardinal Chinese Catholics there.

Under Francis, the Vatican successful 2018 inked a controversial agreement with Beijing governing the assignment of bishops, which galore conservatives decried arsenic a sellout of the underground Chinese Catholics who had remained loyal to Rome during decades of communist persecution. The Vatican has defended the accord arsenic the champion woody it could get, but it remains to beryllium seen if Francis' successor volition support the policy.

The religion successful Africa

According to Vatican statistics, Catholics correspond 3.3% of the colonisation successful Asia, but their numbers are growing, particularly successful presumption of seminarians, arsenic they are successful Africa, wherever Catholics correspond astir 20% of the population. Catholics are 64% of the colonisation successful the Americas, 40% of Europe’s colonisation and 26% of Oceania’s population, according to Vatican statistic from 2023, the past disposable year.

Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, the archbishop of Kinshasa, Congo, said helium is successful Rome to elite a pope for the world's 1.4 cardinal Catholics.

“I americium not present for the Congo, I americium not present for Africa, I americium present for the cosmopolitan church. That is our concern, the cosmopolitan church,” helium told reporters. “When we are done, I volition instrumentality to Kinshasa and I volition enactment backmost connected my archbishop of Kinshasa chapeau and the conflict continues.”

Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco, the chatty French-born archbishop of Algiers, Algeria, lamented past week that determination hadn't been capable clip for the cardinals to get to cognize 1 another, since galore of them had ne'er met earlier and hail from 70 countries successful the astir geographically divers conclave successful history.

By this week, however, helium said that immoderate fig of candidates were possible.

“It is what I telephone an artichoke heart,” helium said. “Every day, I accidental to myself, ‘Ah! Oh my God! There we person it!’”

The relation of the Holy Spirit

For the cardinals, determination is besides the content that they are guided by the Holy Spirit.

There is simply a celebrated punctuation attributed to then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger successful 1997, successful comments to a Bavarian tv station. The aboriginal Pope Benedict XVI said the Holy Spirit acted similar a bully pedagogue successful a conclave, allowing cardinals to freely take a pope without dictating the precise candidate.

“Probably the lone assurance helium offers is that the happening cannot beryllium wholly ruined,” Ratzinger reportedly said. “There are excessively galore contrary instances of popes the Holy Spirit would evidently not person picked.”

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Associated Press analogous Jim Gomez successful Manila, Philippines, and Silvia Stellacci, Trisha Thomas and Giovanna Dell'Orto successful Rome contributed.

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