As cardinals from around the world start to gather in Rome for Pope Francis' funeral, conversations are already beginning over his likely successor.
It's difficult to know how the 135 cardinals eligible to vote in the highly secretive elections — known as the conclave — will negotiate to lead the Catholic Church when they begin next month, or how they will ultimately vote.
But below is a list of some of the best-known candidates who may be under consideration.
Pietro Parolin
The current secretary of state for the Holy See, Parolin is an experienced Italian diplomat who has helped oversee the Vatican's internal affairs but also worked on behalf of the Catholic Church around the world in countries from Venezuela to Vietnam. He's carried out a range of tasks — supporting peace initiatives in Colombia as well as building bridges with Chinese authorities in Beijing. Perhaps more cautious than Francis, he has nonetheless largely supported the late pope's agenda, and may thus have earned criticism from those in the church who were opposed to that agenda. His deal to give the Chinese government authority over the appointment process for bishops in the country also created some detractors who said it hamstrung the church's ability to criticize human rights abuses. Parolin has, though, publicly criticized President Trump's stated plans to evict Palestinians from Gaza, and has previously spoken about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at several international venues. And as a native of northern Italy who speaks multiple languages including French and Spanish, he could appeal to other Italian, French and Spanish cardinals voting in the conclave.
Matteo Zuppi
Zuppi has been serving since 2015 as the archbishop of Bologna, a city in north central Italy, and was made a cardinal in 2019. He has also served in a diplomatic function for the Vatican, tasked by the late pope in 2023 with leading a peace mission to Ukraine, that involved travel to Moscow as well as Washington and Beijing. He belongs to a Catholic humanitarian organization called Sant'Egidio, and previously worked to mediate conflicts in several parts of the world, including Mozambique in the early 1990s and South Sudan more recently. He has appeared to follow a similarly progressive approach as Francis, reaching out to members of the LGBTQ community and openly supporting migrants, with a clear stance of support for Francis' efforts to uplift society's most vulnerable. However, he has less experience of Vatican governance and politics, and some more conservative-minded cardinals may view him as too close to the late pope and far more likely to be influenced by progressive movements within the broader Catholic Church.
Pierbattista Pizzaballa
Appointed to be a cardinal relatively recently by the late Pope Francis, Pizzaballa has served as the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem since 2020, where he has devoted himself to a ministry in a region frequently mired by conflict and humanitarian crises — most recently at the center of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. He celebrated mass inside the only Catholic church in Gaza this past Christmas, telling attendees that the entire Christian world was with them. He has advocated strongly for the rights of various Christian minorities across the Middle East, and following the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023, he offered himself as a Hamas hostage to be swapped in return for Israeli children who were being held by the group inside Gaza. He has made few public positions on other controversial issues inside the Catholic Church, and is largely removed from Vatican politics as someone who has served much of his ministry outside his native Italy. His relative youth (he turned 60 this month), may lead some cardinals in the conclave to consider him too young for the pontificate, but the fact he has generally avoided taking positions on difficult topics may make it easier for opposing conclave factions to consider him a more neutral option for their vote.
Jose Tolentino de Mendonca
A Portuguese cardinal who has served as the prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, a relatively new administration department inside the church that focuses on promoting cultural activities, heritage and the principles of Catholic education. Born on the island of Madeira, he spent some of his early childhood in a former Portuguese colony that is now the independent African nation of Angola. He has written several volumes of poetry, studied the bible and held teaching positions before taking on more senior roles inside the Vatican. Despite this broad experience, however, he is the youngest cardinal appointed by Francis, with whom he shares what is widely considered to be a progressive worldview in the context of the Catholic Church. That has been exemplified by his support for a high-profile feminist nun, who has supported abortion rights and called for the ordination of female priests. Tolentino de Mendonca has also expressed his sympathy for a more tolerant approach to same-sex relationships than the Church has traditionally allowed, arguing on several occasions that the Vatican should engage more willingly with cultural changes and modernity.
Luis Antonio Tagle
A Filipino cardinal appointed by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012, Tagle has been considered a close ally of Francis for many years and shares many of the late pope's values, in particular when it comes to acts of charity in the most impoverished corners of the world. He previously led the church's main charitable branch, Caritas, though it was overhauled and he subsequently stepped down as its head. Since 2019 he has been tasked with overseeing the Vatican's department for evangelization, which seeks to expand the reach of Catholicism worldwide and has thus seen him work closely with local church leaders in developing nations. As the Catholic Church continues to grow in Asia, unlike in Europe, the influence of bishops, archbishops and cardinals from the region has also increased, and Tagle — who is known informally as "Chito" — could represent the most likely candidate for the first ever Asian pope in the church's two millennia. He was considered a strong candidate even as far back as the last conclave in 2013, but for many cardinals would have been considered too young. Since then he has also helped shepherd internal debates over often divisive issues in the church, such as homosexuality and the possibility of divorced or remarried Catholics receiving communion.
Fridolin Ambongo Besungu
As one of Africa's leading archbishops who serves in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's capital of Kinshasa, Ambongo oversees a local faithful that now numbers around seven million, and has become a powerful and often political voice in his native country. He has often taken difficult positions in the face of opposition from influential politicians or armed groups, by defending human rights and democracy. He belongs to a Catholic religious order known as the Capuchin Franciscans, an order that largely adheres to the teachings of St. Francis of Assisi — the man that served as a model for the late pope, and inspired his choice of pontifical name. He has been a cardinal since 2019, has taken a strong and public stance against same-sex relationships, in keeping with the often conservative positions of many African church leaders, and was a leading member of a group of cardinals who opposed Francis' decision in 2023 to allow priests to bless such relationships. Yet he remained close to the late pope, and was chosen as one of nine cardinals to serve as his close advisors, making him a potential contender for the papacy because he may appeal to multiple constituencies within the conclave that will soon begin.
Péter Erdő
A Hungarian expert in canon law and archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest for more than 20 years, Erdő is a leading conservative candidate for the papacy and since he was made cardinal aged just 50, he has often taken strong positions on a range of issues that seem different to that of the late pope, including on migration. He has sometimes seemed to ally himself with Hungary's conservative president, Viktor Orban, and has previously said welcoming refugees into the country would equate to human trafficking — a stark contrast to Pope Francis' compassionate support for migration assistance groups across Europe. He is not known as the most charismatic of speakers, but has voiced his opinions with less ambiguity than many church leaders often do, pushing for theological orthodoxy in his decade-long role as head of the Council of European Bishops' Conferences. A published scholar who can communicate in a variety of languages including Russian, German, Italian, French, Spanish and English, he maintains highly traditional views on marriage and family, as well as LGBTQ rights, and would be a papal candidate who would continue to view Europe as a central element in the church's future.
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