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.

Along with members of the College of Cardinals, women and men belonging to religious orders paid tribute to Pope Francis, a Jesuit, and thanked God for his life and ministry.

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.

In preparation for the conclave, workers placed a protective covering over the marble mosaic floors and started carrying in pipes, couplers and sheets of subflooring.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state since early in the pontificate of Pope Francis, has long been near the top of pundits’ lists of potential successors to the Argentine pope.

Good-natured, affable and dedicated to dialogue, French Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline of Marseille coordinates a churchwide network in the Mediterranean region, a mission he received from Pope Francis.

All but four of the 135 cardinals who are eligible to enter the conclave May 7 to vote for a new pope had arrived in Rome by May 2, according to the Vatican press office.