2025 Conclave

Le Figaro had described Cardinal Arborelius as “first and foremost a man of prayer but also a noted theologian, committed to ecumenism.” It also said his leadership of a church in “a highly secularized country where Catholicism is in the minority” is an advantage.

Cardinal Carlos Aguiar Retes of Mexico City is admired as a pastor and biblical scholar and was a key ally of Pope Francis in implementing the Synod of Bishops on synodality — a central component of his pontificate — all of which place the Mexican cardinal high on the list of potential successors to the first Latin American pope.

Cardinal Robert F. Prevost, the Chicago-born prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops under Pope Francis, is the U.S. cardinal most often mentioned as a potential successor of St. Peter, but almost always with the caveat that he has an “outside” chance.

As a 79-year-old member of Pope Francis’ team of cardinal advisers, a European with missionary experience in Africa and archbishop of a city with more than 2 million baptized Catholics, Cardinal Juan José Omella Omella is well-positioned to draw votes from the pope’s allies in the coming conclave.

Pope Francis issued regular appeals for prayers for Myanmar — a nation embroiled in a political and humanitarian crisis since a military coup plunged the crisis into civil war in February 2021 — and the cardinal leading the country’s approximately 700,000 Catholics often is mentioned as a possible successor to the pope.

As the College of Cardinals gathers for general congregations ahead of the upcoming conclave, Cardinal Gregorio Rosa Chávez of El Salvador described a calm and fraternal atmosphere among the group — one marked not by tension, but by prayer and unity of purpose.