World News

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.

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.