European cardinal with global ties balances unity and diversity

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — “We need a pope who is capable of building unity among everyone,” a cardinal mentioned by media as a papal contender told the Argentine newspaper La Nación May 1. “That is to say, a pope who is inclusive, who does not exclude anyone or anything.”

A Spaniard with deep ties to Latin America and North Africa, Cardinal Cristóbal López Romero of Rabat, Morocco, could be just that figure.

The 72-year-old Salesian missionary has spent more than three decades of his priestly ministry in the developing world and now leads a tiny Catholic minority in a Muslim-majority country.

He was appointed archbishop of Rabat in 2017 and created a cardinal by Pope Francis in 2019, shortly after the pope’s trip to Morocco. During that visit, the pope described the local Catholic community not in terms of numbers but in terms of witness — a theme Cardinal López regularly echoes. “It is not a problem to be few; the problem would be to be salt that has lost the flavor of the Gospel, or light that no longer illuminates anyone,” he said in a 2023 interview.

A vocal supporter of synodality, Cardinal López sees the church’s path forward as one of mutual listening even when disagreements arise. “There are cardinals who, for example, see the synod as a disaster and useless, and others of us who are enthusiastic,” he told La Nación. “But those differences should not stop us from living unity.”

In a May 1 interview with Italian daily La Repubblica, he said the church needs to “build unity without suffocating diversity.”

“Diversity is not a problem, it is an opportunity, not a bad thing but necessary and good,” he said.

He has also cautioned against allowing one region of the world to dominate the church’s direction, particularly in light of tensions raised by Germany’s synodal path. “Synodality implies listening to each other, because no one can make the journey alone,” he told Exaudi in 2024. “It is better that these problems arise because they exist, so that we can face them and not sweep them under the carpet.”

While church observers often speak of divisions among “conservatives” and “progressives,” Cardinal López has resisted such labels. “Trying to classify and label people, besides being very difficult, is very dangerous,” he told La Nación. “Some want to fit everyone into political boxes of conservatives and progressives, left and right, but that’s not always possible.”

“I completely connected with everything Pope Francis has proposed,” he added, “but I am not ‘Franciscan.’ I am of Christ; I am of the Gospel.”

What drew him to Pope Francis’ vision, he said, was that it is “pure Gospel, straight to the veins.”

The cardinal has offered support for “Fiducia Supplicans” (“Supplicating Trust”), which allows Catholic priests to bless a same-sex or other unmarried couple. “If you can bless a dog, a car, a building, why couldn’t you bless a person who, beyond their behavior or orientation, is a child of God?” he asked.

While acknowledging the concerns of bishops in countries where homosexuality is criminalized, he said the bishops of North Africa ultimately accepted the declaration because it reaffirmed “the traditional doctrine of the church in matters of marriage and sexuality.”

Born May 19, 1952, in Vélez-Rubio in southern Spain, Cardinal López took his first vows as a Salesian at age 16 and was ordained a priest in 1979. After early ministry in the outskirts of Barcelona, he moved to Paraguay, where he worked in youth ministry and eventually became provincial superior of the Salesians. He later held leadership roles in Bolivia, Morocco and Spain before being appointed archbishop of Rabat in 2017.

As archbishop in a Muslim-majority country, Cardinal López has made interreligious dialogue a cornerstone of his ministry. “Muslims and Christians are not Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola competing for market share,” he has said. “We are brothers and sisters who can and must work together to make the world as God dreamed it, as God wants it.”

In that same spirit of universality, he dismissed the idea that geography should determine who becomes pope. “Thanks be to God, in the Catholic Church now more than ever national or nationalist borders and geographic differences no longer exist,” he told La Repubblica. “We are open to everyone — and this is a good thing.”

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