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A first American pope? Cardinal Robert Prevost’s name comes up as a potential successor to Pope Francis
Vatican City — Of the 266 popes who have led the Catholic Church, not one of them has been from the United States. While the relative youth of the nation means fewer than 20 of those men served after the U.S. Declaration of Independence in 1776, one prominent U.S. bishop has a possible explanation for the lack of an American leader of the world’s Catholics up until now.
Robert Barron, bishop of the Diocese of Winona–Rochester in Minnesota, was appointed less than a week ago by President Trump to the new White House Commission on Religious Liberty.
This week, however, he’s at the Vatican with hundreds of other prelates as the cardinal electors gather for the conclave to choose a new pontiff to succeed Pope Francis.
Barron has spent days speaking with the cardinals — including the 133 cardinal electors tasked with electing the new pope — as they try to figure out among themselves who is best to lead the church next.
“Cardinal George of Chicago, of happy memory, was one of my great mentors, and he said: ‘Look, until America goes into political decline, there won’t be an American pope.’ And his point was, if America is kind of running the world politically, culturally, economically, they don’t want America running the world religiously. So, I think there’s some truth to that, that we’re such a superpower and so dominant, they don’t wanna give us, also, control over the church.”
That said, one American name has popped up repeatedly amid the gossip over leading contenders for the role of pontiff: Cardinal Robert Prevost.
He is undoubtedly qualified, as the only clear qualifications for the role of pontiff are that candidates be male and Roman Catholic. But emerging on top, with the necessary backing of just over two-thirds of the voting cardinal electors, will require far more than just eligibility.
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Originally from Chicago, Prevost is the head of the church’s Dicastery for Bishops. The powerful position means he oversees the selection of new bishops.
For any cardinal electors who may be turned off by Prevost’s American nationality, it’s not his only one. He’s a dual citizen, holding nationality in both the U.S. and Peru, where he served for many years.
While Prevost is seen overall as a centrist, on some key social issues he’s viewed as progressive. He has long embraced marginalized groups, a lot like Francis, who championed migrants and the poor.
But, also like Pope Francis, the Illinois native opposes ordaining women as deacons, for instance, so on that point he’s seen as conservative on church doctrine.
contributed to this report.
At 2025 papal conclave, some contentious issues await the new pope
Vatican City — All the Vatican staff who will be involved in the 2025 conclave to pick the late Pope Francis’ successor — from the cleaners to the cooks and custodians — have taken their oath of secrecy. The punishment for leaking information about the ancient Catholic Church ritual is immediate excommunication.
The 133 cardinal electors tasked with electing the next pontiff took their own oaths on Wednesday, inside the Sistine Chapel, as the conclave officially got underway.
In the days prior, they were seen going in and out of meetings to discuss the merits of the men among their own ranks — any one of whom could be chosen as the next pope, the leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
Among the issues that differentiate the presumed frontrunners for the job are some extremely controversial topics for Catholics, including exactly how far the church should open its doors — if at all — to people like Andrea Rubera, his husband, and their three children.
Simone Risoluti/Getty
Rubera, who has been in his same-sex relationship for years, told CBS News that “when Pope Francis died, I cried.”
A decade ago, Rubera and his husband were struggling over whether they could raise their kids Catholic. Then he got a phone call.
“So I answered, and it was: ‘Mr. Rubera, are you busy at the moment, because I see you are you are not answering my calls, and this is Pope Francis.'”
He recalled his surprise as the late pontiff asked if he could make time to talk. He did, and Francis encouraged the couple to behave like any other Catholic family. Rubera said he’s worried that the next pope may not be as eager to welcome him and his family into the church.
“My personal fear is that our lives, our families, our rights, could be … canceled,” he said.
Another big issue facing the next pope will be the role of women in the church. There has been fierce debate within the Catholic community for years about whether women should be allowed to become deacons, and eventually even priests. That door, even during the relatively progressive reign of Pope Francis, remained firmly closed.
But Kate McElwee, executive director of the Women’s Ordination Conference, told CBS News that, “on this question, women are not going to wait much longer.”
“Certainly there’s a tipping point that we’re facing,” she said, predicting that if the Catholic Church doesn’t offer new opportunities soon, “I think women will vote with their feet — they will no longer go and participate in the life of the church.”
When the new pope is chosen behind the closed doors of the conclave, he’ll adopt his chosen papal name and then be taken to an antechamber in the Sistine Chapel to put on his papal white robes.
That fitting room is called “La Stanza delle Lacrime,” or, in English, “the room of tears” — for all the popes who have cried there over the centuries as the gravity of their calling sinks in.
Americans visiting Rome during conclave describe what they want in the next pope
The papal conclave is convening on Wednesday to begin the process of electing Pope Francis’ successor. And for Americans who are visiting Rome this week, it’s a chance to experience history.
“It’s … probably once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be in Rome when they’re doing the conclave,” John Swierk told “CBS Mornings” co-host Tony Dokoupil.
Several Americans said they believe God will guide the conclave.
“I’m not hoping for much because the Holy Spirit will hopefully lead either the Cardinals or lead the pope after the decision,” said Grant Avis. “They’ll be a successor of Christ either way, it’s not really about my opinions.”
But some, like Kathy Freeman, a Catholic flight attendant from New Jersey who flew to Rome for work, said, “I see it more political than divine intervention.”
“It’s like politics in the United States,” she said. “It’s another government up there.”
A new CBS News poll found that 42% of American Catholics hope Pope Francis’ successor continues his teachings. Freeman is among those, but adds she is still unsatisfied with aspects of the current church and raised her children outside of it.
“I would love as a Catholic to see more female intervention in all parts of the service,” she said.
Dokoupil spoke to a group of men from Missouri who were also in Rome. They said the new pope doesn’t need to be more liberal or conservative, but that he needs to unite the faith.
“Moreso than needing somebody who is left or right, we just need somebody who is a champion of the faith that everybody can get behind,” said Alex Harold.
He also said the papacy “does not need to fit the age,” adding “that’s why it’s 2,000 years old.”
CBS News poll shows what U.S. Catholics want in next pope
A majority of those surveyed in the recent CBS News poll think the next pope should speak out on the world’s political issues. They would also look for a pope who supports letting priests marry; of letting women be ordained as priests; and — overwhelmingly — for the use of birth control.
But the poll found a division of views between U.S. Catholics who are regular churchgoers and those who rarely or never attend.
In the United States, the number of Catholics attending mass has dwindled over the past few decades. Weekly or nearly weekly attendance is down 12% since 2000, according to Gallup.
“We’re going through a crisis in the Catholic Church in the United States and especially in the global north. We have young people who just aren’t interested and are leaving,” said Father Thomas Reese, a priest and longtime chronicler of the faith. “It’s something like one out of three people who were baptized Catholic no longer identify as Catholic in the United States. That’s huge!”
When will the conclave elect the next pope?
The 133 cardinal electors who make up the conclave meet Wednesday. There is no set deadline for when a new pope will be elected to lead the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, but recent popes have been chosen within two to three days of the conclave convening.
A candidate must receive two-thirds of the electors’ votes, plus one, to become the next pope. When that happens, white smoke will rise from the Sistine Chapel to indicate a new pope has been selected.
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Watch Live: 2025 papal conclave begins, with cardinals set to pick new pope to succeed Pope Francis
Catholic cardinal electors from five continents gathered Wednesday inside the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican for the 2025 conclave to select a new pope. The conclave was convening exactly 16 days after the death of 88-year-old Pope Francis, who led the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics for 12 years.
It is impossible to say how long the conclave will last, but many observers expect the 133 cardinal electors to choose a new pontiff within a few days.
Earlier Wednesday, cardinals held a final mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, led by the dean of the College of Cardinals, Giovanni Battisa Re.
“We are here to invoke the help of the Holy Spirit, to implore his light and strength so that the pope elected may be he whom the Church and humanity need at this difficult and complex turning point in history,” Re told the cardinals. “This is also a strong call to maintain the unity of the Church… a unity that does not mean uniformity, but a firm and profound communion in diversity.”
Re said the cardinals should pray for “a pope who knows how best to awaken the consciences of all and the moral and spiritual energies in today’s society, characterized by great technological progress but which tends to forget God. Today’s world expects much from the church regarding the safeguarding of those fundamental human and spiritual values without which human coexistence will not be better nor bring good to future generations.”
After a gathering in the Apostolic Palace, the most diverse group of electors ever, from at least 70 different countries, walked in procession from the palace’s Pauline Chapel into the adjoining Sistine Chapel, where the conclave will be held.
Kevin Coombs/REUTERS
The process to select a new pope is shrouded in secrecy, and the cardinal electors filed up one by one to take an oath inside the chapel as the conclave was about to get underway, vowing to preserve that secrecy.
“In a particular way, we promise and swear to observe with the greatest fidelity and with all persons, clerical or lay, secrecy regarding everything that in any way relates to the election of the Roman Pontiff and regarding what occurs in the place of the election, directly or indirectly related to the results of the voting,” the cardinals were asked to swear, in Latin. “We promise and swear not to break this secret in any way, either during or after the election of the new pontiff, unless explicit authorization is granted by the same pontiff.”
The cardinal electors are forced to give up their digital devices during the conclave.
Dozens of less senior Vatican staff and clergy who will play some part in the conclave have already taken a similar vow of secrecy.
After the last of the cardinal electors took the oath of secrecy, a declaration of “extra omnes” — or “everyone out” — by Archbishop Diego Ravelli, the Vatican’s master of ceremonies, was the signal for everyone else to leave the Sistine Chapel so the work of the conclave could begin. The chapel’s doors were then locked.
The cardinals were likely to hold one round of voting before an evening prayer on Wednesday. If no pope is chosen, black smoke from the chapel chimney will indicate a continuation of the conclave, and voting will resume on Thursday.
Pope Francis championed inclusion. LGBTQ Catholics hope a new pope will finish what he started.
As the conclave to select a new pope begins, LGBTQ Catholics hope that whoever is picked will finish the inclusion work Pope Francis started more than 20 years ago.
Pope Francis, who died at 88 last month, was the first pontiff to be publicly inclusive of the LGBTQ Catholic community. He didn’t change doctrine, but he changed the conversation by voicing support for legal civil unions, personally meeting with LGBTQ groups and extending blessings to individuals in same-sex unions.
“Francis was really a breath of fresh air, and a revolutionary in the way he was telling Church leaders to approach and relate to LGBTQ people,” said Francis DeBardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, a Catholic outreach that educates about and advocates for LGBTQ persons.
DeBardo said the previous two popes before Francis held anti-gay views, probably the most strident in the Church’s history. Under Francis, the papacy adopted a different tone toward the LGBTQ community.
Some clergy and Catholics within the community hope the conclave — in which some frontrunners appear to share Francis’s inclusive views — will continue his work.
Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images
“Who am I to judge?”
Just four months after Francis became pope in 2013, he created controversy when, during a July inflight press conference, he responded to a journalist’s question about gay clergy members. He said: “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” Francis’s answer went against years of Catholic precedent.
These words, which reverberated worldwide, set a very different tone from the previous relationship the Church had with gay clergy and members. His predecessors John Paul II and Benedict XVI were far less accepting of LGBTQ people. Benedict XVI published the first modern formal statement denouncing homosexuality in 1986.
The treatise was written by Benedict while he was still a cardinal under Pope John Paul II. John Paul endorsed Benedict’s message, and he also explicitly denounced legal recognition for same-sex marriage. Those sentiments prevailed in 2003 when the Vatican officially opposed same-sex unions.
In response to the Vatican’s hardline stances, LGBTQ people held protests during John Paul’s 1987 US visit. During his trip he stopped in multiple cities, but the resistance was most notable during his time in San Francisco. San Francisco was reeling from the AIDS epidemic and during the visit, the pope was met with activists holding protest signs and participating in candlelight processions and prayer vigils, hoping to enact change.
In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which is an official document that outlines Catholic beliefs, the Church still views homosexual acts as “intrinsically immoral and contrary to the natural law.” The text says that homosexual tendencies are “objectively disordered.”
Cristina Traina, a professor in the Theology department at Fordham University, says the language used in the catechism to describe homosexuality doesn’t easily translate into everyday life.
“You could read [“objectively disordered”] as just a technical term, but people read it as fundamentally evil and broken,” Traina said. “It’s a technical term, but it certainly does not work pastorally.”
With his public comments, Pope Francis began to change the narrative. Francis called homosexuality “a human fact,” during a May 2024 interview with CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell. He personally met with LGBTQ Catholic groups, including DeBardo’s New Ways Ministry, and he clarified that transgender people can be baptized and serve as godparents.
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Potential for continued progress
Traina sees the potential for continued progress within the Church despite the death of Pope Francis, because attitudes among everyday Catholics have changed.
“These things change on the ground and in practice, and then they change at the Vatican, and that’s the last thing that changes,” Traina said.
A 2020 study from UCLA’s Williams Institute found that there were approximately 11.3 million LGBTQ adults in the U.S., and about 5.3 million of them are religious, including about 1.3 million who are Roman Catholics.
Although 69% of Americans support same-sex marriage, political figures such as Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic convert, continue to push for traditional family values and support laws allowing for religious exemptions to LGBTQ protections. While campaigning for his U.S. Senate seat in 2022, one of the laws he said he would vote ‘no’ for is the Respect for Marriage Act, which provided federal protections for same-sex and interracial marriages.
Teresa Thompson is a member of Catholic Lesbians at the Church of St. Francis Xavier in New York. Catholic Lesbians was founded in 1995 and has over 300 members.
Thompson, who grew up Catholic, started to distance herself from religion during college, which also coincidentally was when she came out as a lesbian. Although her move away from religion was not due to her sexuality, she felt as though she couldn’t return to Catholicism. That began to shift when Francis adopted a more compassionate tone toward LGBTQ people, and Thompson discovered communities that welcomed her.
Ahead of the conclave, Thompson expressed hope that the next pope will continue the work Francis started.
Antonio Masiello/Getty Images
“I think there’s a sense of nervousness, not being sure what is going to happen,” Thompson said. “If we look at the structure of the College of Cardinals, Francis appointed so many cardinals that it seems unlikely we would … go back, but also, who’s to say?”
Sister Jeannine Gramick, co-founder of New Ways Ministry, believes the next pope will mirror the path of Pope Francis rather than undo his legacy.
“My sense is that the cardinal electors will elect somebody who [will follow] in the footsteps of Pope Francis,” Gramick said. “So if that proves correct, then the changes that Pope Francis brought about will not be undone.”
In her conversations with LGBTQ Catholics, Gramick says that she senses a lot of hope for the future, and there is hope for a pope who will go even further than Francis did.
“[LGBTQ] people, they’re looking for more changes, and I think the primary change they’re looking for is to change the sexual ethics teaching of the church,” Gramick said. “The catechism has not been changed yet.”
Watching the conclave for clues
With the conclave set to begin, some of the cardinals who could be contenders seem poised to continue Francis’s legacy. As CBS News has reported, they include:
- Cardinal Peter Erdo, archbishop of Budapest, Hungary
- Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo, archbishop of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo
- Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary general for the Synod of Bishops
- Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state
- Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin patriarch of Jerusalem
- Cardinal Luis Tagle of the Philippines
- Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, archbishop of Bologna, Italy
- Cardinal Anders Arborelius, archbishop of Stockholm
- Cardinal Gerald Cyprien Lacroix of Quebec
Cardinal Grech has advocated for more compassionate language when speaking about LGBTQ people and has spoken about the importance of the inclusivity of all members, including LGBTQ people, according to New Ways Ministry.
Cardinal Tagle has also spoken compassionately about LGBTQ Catholics and was an ally of Francis. Cardinal Zuppi is another contender supportive of Francis’s embrace of LGBTQ Catholics, according to New Ways Ministry.
“I am voting for Cardinal Tagle to be the first Filipino pope,” Thompson said. “I think in character and ideas, he’s very similar to Francis, and I used to live in the Philippines, so I also have a special place in my heart for the idea of a Filipino pope.”
Traina says she is also hopeful for someone like Tagle, but notes that predicting who will be the new pope is almost impossible.
“It’s often hard to tell what (a cardinal) will actually do when they get into the papacy, because Francis was also a surprise,” Traina said. “Since we have a global College of Cardinals, now the list of possibilities is much longer.”
Although Thompson is throwing her personal support behind Cardinal Tagle, she urges the electorate to set aside their political motivations while casting their votes.
“I really hope this will be a moment where leaders can practice what they preach,” Thompson said. “In Ignatian spirituality, there’s a practice of making decisions through discernment, [where you] let go … of your preconceived notions [and] allow the Holy Spirit to guide you. … I would say please try to let politics go and try to listen to how the church really wants to move forward.”
What American Catholics want in the next pope
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When will the 2025 conclave bring a new pope? Here’s how long it’s taken to see white smoke in the past
It’s nearing decision time for the most senior members of the Catholic Church. The 133 cardinal electors due to choose a successor to the late Pope Francis gathered for a final Mass on Wednesday morning, just hours before they were to launch the secretive, centuries-old ritual known as the conclave to pick a new pontiff.
Later Wednesday, the electors will be locked inside the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel, where they will hold as many rounds of voting as prove necessary to select the next leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
Here’s what you need to know about the process and how long it might take.
When does the 2025 papal conclave start?
The conclave begins on Wednesday — 16 days after Pope Francis’ death.
It’s one of the oldest methods of electing a head of state that’s still in use today, and its basic protocols have barely changed for 800 years.
In order to become a pope, a candidate need only be Catholic and male. However, for centuries, popes have only been chosen from among the Catholic cardinals, the church’s most senior officials.
The conclave takes place in the Sistine Chapel, behind sealed doors. Along with all Vatican staff involved in the process, the cardinal electors take an oath of secrecy, and the chapel is swept for listening devices.
The 133 electors participating this time around can hold one round of voting in the afternoon of the first day of the conclave, which consists of two ballots. To be elected pope, a candidate must garner two-thirds of the votes plus one. If the first round isn’t conclusive, voting continues into a second day.
From the second day onward, there are two rounds of voting each day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.
If there is no two-thirds majority after three days of voting, the process is paused for a day to allow time for the cardinals to pray and discuss their options.
How long have conclaves taken to choose new popes in the past?
There is no time limit set for how long a conclave can take. The cardinal electors continue to vote until a two-third-plus-one majority is achieved.
The shortest conclave on record was in 1503, when it took the cardinals only 10 hours to choose Pope Pius III as the new pontiff.
The longest conclave on record took nearly three years.
The election of a successor to Pope Clement IV in 1268 dragged on for so long — about 1,000 days — that locals in the town of Viterbo, where it was held, locked the cardinals in the room where they had gathered until they reached a decision.
That is where the name still used for the process of selecting a new pope — “conclave,” which translates to “under lock and key” — came from.
After that marathon conclave, Pope Gregory X was finally elected in September of 1271.
How long is the 2025 papal conclave expected to last?
There is no way to predict how long a conclave will take, but guidance can perhaps be taken from recent history.
The last three popes have been elected in two or three days.
In 2013, Pope Francis was elected after five ballots held over two days. In 2005, Pope Benedict XVI was elected after four ballots. In 1978, Pope John Paul II was elected over two days after eight ballots.
Vatican watcher John Allen, the editor of the Catholic news outlet Crux, believes this conclave may well follow that pattern, and we could expect a new pope to be named by the end of the week.
Why does the papal conclave use white smoke?
After each round of voting, the paper ballots are burned. If a pope has not been elected, black smoke rises from the chimney above the chapel. If a pope has been elected, white smoke rises.
Initially, only black smoke was part of the conclave tradition, rising from the chimney as a result of ballots being burned after an unsuccessful round of voting.
White smoke was first used in 1914, when Cardinals decided the light colored smoke should announce the selection of a new pope, Georgtown University reported.
Now, to ensure the result of each ballot is clear, chemicals are burned alongside the ballots in each round to color the smoke black or white.
contributed to this report.
Who will be the next pope? Here’s a list of some possible candidates to succeed Pope Francis.
Pope Francis’ death on April 21, the day after he made his last appearance on Easter Sunday, kicked off a series of traditions that will soon culminate in some of the Catholic Church’s senior prelates voting to elect a new pope. Francis’ successor will be decided by the cardinal electors, a group of 133 cardinals under the age of 80 who will begin a conclave on Wednesday afternoon to hold secret ballots to choose the next pontiff.
“Every papal conclave comes down, in some sense, to a referendum on the papacy that has just ended,” John Allen, a longtime observer of the Vatican and editor of the Catholic news site Crux, said. Several of the likely frontrunners would represent continuity with the direction set by Pope Francis, he said, while others would signal “a change in a slightly more traditional, conservative direction.”
No matter their leanings, Allen said, the cardinal electors will be looking for someone who can equal Pope Francis’ stature on the world stage. “They want, in part, someone who can have the same capacity to make it absolutely impossible for the wider world to ignore what the Catholic Church has to say.”
Over the last 600 years — since 1378 — cardinals have been chosen for the position, although eligibility technically extends to any male Roman Catholic who has been baptized.
“This is the world’s oldest democratic exercise. It is an election,” Allen told CBS News.
And while “Catholics believe that all of this unfolds under the guidance of the Holy Spirit,” Allen said “the fact that this is a supernatural process doesn’t make it any less human, and therefore, doesn’t it make it any less political.”
Here is look at some of the cardinals considered possible contenders to become pope:
Cardinal Peter Erdo, archbishop of Budapest, Hungary
Cardinal Peter Erdo, a 72-year-old canon lawyer, is the highest ranking Catholic leader in a country that is 80% Christian. He is known for his support of the pope’s outreach to Orthodox Christians.
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Erdo is also on the conservative side of the European cultural divide. On migration, a key issue for Hungary, he has conveyed a balanced approach, recognizing the right to migrate but also the importance of ensuring political stability.
Erdo is considered a traditionalist but is also respected by liberals, which could make him a unifying force within the church.
Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo, archbishop of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo
Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo, president of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar, grew global attention for leading African bishops in unanimous rejection of “Fiducia Supplicans,” a declaration the Vatican issued in 2023 that included guidelines on the blessings of people in same-sex relationships.
TIZIANA FABI/AFP via Getty Images
At 65 years old, he is known as a supporter of orthodoxy and defends priestly celibacy and the church’s moral teachings. He is also known as a promoter of social justice and a champion of the poor and voiceless, and is outspoken in his criticism of the Congolese government.
If elected he would be the first African chosen to lead the Catholic Church in more than 1,500 years. The last African pontiff was Pope Gelasius, who died in 496 after leading the church for a little over three years.
Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary general for the Synod of Bishops
Cardinal Mario Grech, 68, is a canon lawyer who has major influence on how synods in the church are run. Supporters have praised him for leading the charge in implementing a more consultative and inclusive approach to church governance.
TIZIANA FABI/AFP via Getty Images
Grech comes from Malta, which is one of the smallest countries in the world.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, 70, is second-in-command at the Vatican and a career diplomat who has consistently risen above any turbulence marking the pontificate.
John Allen, the Crux editor, sees him as a frontrunner.
“The point of reference for this conclave is almost certainly Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the man who was Pope Francis’ Secretary of State — his right-hand man for 12 years.”
Simone Risoluti / Getty Images
He is regarded as a moderate who, if elected, could repair rifts inside the church. He is also considered a progressive with a global vision.
But while Parolin has garnered a lot of speculation as a contender heading into the conclave, Allen cautioned against any notion of a sure thing in papal politics.
“There’s a famous Italian saying, that he who enters a conclave as a pope, exits a cardinal — meaning that if you’re getting a lot of buzz, you’re not going to be elected,” he said.
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin patriarch of Jerusalem
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, 60, is a pastoral candidate who has spoken out amid the Israel-Hamas war and visited Gaza during the conflict.
KHALIL MAZRAAWI/AFP via Getty Images
He is a proponent of social justice and sees himself as a servant of the people. He is similar to Francis in his concern for migrants, interfaith dialogue and his disdain for clericalism.
Cardinal Luis Tagle of the Philippines
Cardinal Luis Tagle, 67, and pro-prefect for the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, is known as the “Asian Francis” for his missionary spirit as well as his emphasis on caring for the poor and welcoming of LGBTQ and divorced and remarried Catholics.
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He is the former archbishop of Manila, in the Philippines, which is one of the most Catholic countries on the continent of Asia, and studied in the U.S. for seven years. His election would signal a continuation of Francis’ pontificate.
Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, archbishop of Bologna, Italy
Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, 69, is the president of the Italian bishops conference. He is known as a “street priest” and missionary and wants a church that listens to the faithful and is willing to modernize. Zuppi is inclusive of same-sex couples, as well as people of different religions.
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Francis chose Zuppi as his envoy to Russia and Ukraine, as well as to the West Bank and Beijing, to promote peace.
Cardinal Anders Arborelius, archbishop of Stockholm
Cardinal Anders Arborelius, 75, was raised Lutheran and converted to Catholicism at the age of 20. He is the first ever cardinal from Scandinavia.
He is also a traditionalist on the church’s teaching on sexual ethics and gender, and has a strong concern for the environment.
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Arborelius has been a proponent of immigration into Sweden, calling for dialogue and integration instead of restrictions.
Cardinal Gerald Cyprien Lacroix of Quebec
Cardinal Gérald Cyprien Lacroix, Metropolitan Archbishop of Quebec, Canada, is 67 years old. Earlier in his career he spent years as a missionary and seminary professor in Colombia.
Peter Macdiarmid / Getty Images
He temporarily stepped back from his duties amid sexual abuse allegations, which he denied, and returned to his duties last year after a church-led investigation found no evidence of misconduct.
Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana
Conservative-leaning Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana would, like Ambongo, be the Catholic Church’s first contemporary African pope if selected.
But the Ghanaian, who was the first man from his country to be made a cardinal, is considered a less hard-line conservative than his Congolese counterpart.
Riccardo De Luca/Anadolu via Getty Images
The 76-year-old has opposed the criminalization of homosexual relationships in Africa, including in his home country.
In 2012, he was criticized for fear-mongering about Islam in Europe during a Vatican conference, and he later apologized.
The following year, he told BBC News he didn’t want the Catholic Church’s top job, saying, “I’m not sure whether anyone does aspire to become a pope.”
Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline of France
At 66, French Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, the Archbishop of Marseille, is on the younger side compared to many of his fellow prelates. If chosen as the next pope, he would be the first Frenchman to hold the position since Gregory XI died in 1378.
Aveline, who was born in Algeria under French colonial rule but grew up in Marseille, is considered a progressive on issues such as immigration, as was Pope Francis.
Maria Grazia Picciarella/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty
He has spoken out about drug trafficking networks based in Marseille, and helped to establish an institution that encourages interfaith dialogue between Catholics, Muslims and Jews.
Aveline was considered a favorite of Pope Francis, but some believe his chances as a papal candidate could be harmed by the fact that he doesn’t speak Italian.