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THE DEATH OF Pope Francis has triggered a period of mourning in the Catholic Church, but also kick-started the race for his successor.
Predicting the outcome of the secretive papal conclave is nearly impossible, as cardinals’ positions often shift with each round of voting and some attempt to sway the results in favour of – or against – certain candidates.
During the 2013 conclave, few foresaw the election of Jorge Mario Bergoglio as Pope Francis. Currently, speculation centers on the following individuals as potential successors:
Pietro Parolin (Italy), 70, Vatican Secretary of State
The Vatican’s chief diplomat, Parolin has been the number two at the Vatican during nearly all of Francis’s papacy.
He is known to many world leaders, having travelled the globe, but also to many inside the Roman Curia, the government of the Holy See.
A member of Francis’s Council of Cardinals, an advisory body, Parolin played a key role in the historic 2018 deal between the Holy See and China on the appointment of bishops.
Pierbattista Pizzaballa (Italy), 60, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem
Pizzaballa is the top Catholic in the Middle East with an archdiocese encompassing Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan and Cyprus.
He was made a cardinal in September 2023, shortly before the war broke out between Israel and Hamas.
The Franciscan has appealed for peace from both sides, and at Christmas in 2024 led mass both in Gaza and in Jerusalem.
Matteo Maria Zuppi (Italy), 69, Archbishop of Bologna
Zuppi, a member of the Roman community of Sant’Egidio, has for more than three decades acted as a discreet diplomat for the Vatican including serving as Pope Francis’s special peace envoy for Ukraine.
Known for riding his bicycle around Bologna, Zuppi is a popular figure for his decades of work on behalf of the needy. He also advocates for welcoming migrants and gay Catholics into the Church.
He has been president of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI) since 2022.
Claudio Gugerotti (Italy), 69
A diplomat and polyglot from the Italian city of Verona, Gugerotti is an expert on the Slavic world.
He served as nuncio – or ambassador of the Holy See – in several countries including Britain, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus and Ukraine.
Consulted by Pope Francis on the war between Ukraine and Russia, Gugerotti was named Prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches in 2022.
Jean-Marc Aveline (France), Archbishop of Marseille, 66
Born in Algeria, Aveline has spent most of his life in Marseille and is an emblematic figure of the southern French port city.
Considered a close friend of Pope Francis, he was appointed auxiliary bishop of Marseille in 2013 and elevated to cardinal in 2022.
The smiling, affable Aveline has advocated for dialogue between religions and cultures, and the defence of migrants — both central tenets of Pope Francis’s papacy.
Anders Arborelius (Sweden), 75, Bishop of Stockholm
Appointed in 2017 as Sweden’s first cardinal, Arborelius is a convert to Catholicism in the overwhelmingly Protestant Scandinavian country, home to one of the world’s most secularised societies.
He is the first Swedish Catholic bishop since the Protestant Reformation and a staunch defender of Church doctrine, notably opposed to allowing women to be deacons or blessing same-sex couples.
Like Pope Francis, Arborelius advocates welcoming migrants to Europe, including Christians, Catholics and potential converts.
Mario Grech (Malta), 68, Bishop emeritus of Gozo
Grech is the secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, a body that gathers information from local churches on crucial issues for the Church – whether the place of women or remarried divorced people – and passes it along to the pope.
He has had to perform a delicate balancing act, following Pope Francis’s lead on creating an open, attentive Church while acknowledging the concerns of conservatives.
He has acknowledged the “fraternal dialogue” between Catholics of all levels while assuring traditionalists that the Church is “not a democracy, the Church is hierarchical”.
Peter Erdo, 72, Metropolitan Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest
An intellectual and respected expert in canon law, Erdo speaks seven languages, has published more than 25 books, and is recognised for his openness to other religions.
But his ties with the government of nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban — whose hardline anti-migrant views clash with those of Pope Francis — have been under scrutiny in the past.
Known for his enthusiasm for evangelism, the cardinal who grew up under Communism is a conservative on such issues as gay marriage and divorcees who remarry.
Jean-Claude Hollerich, 67, Archbishop of Luxembourg
A Jesuit like Pope Francis, Hollerich spent over 20 years in Japan, and is a specialist in European-Asian cultural relations as well as German literature.
Firm on dogma, the theologian is still open to the need for the Church to adapt to societal changes, much like the Argentine pope he was close to and for whom he served as an adviser on the Council of Cardinals.
Hollerich has advocated for the environment and has pushed for laypeople, especially young people, to have more involvement in the Church.
Luis Antonio Tagle (Philippines), 67, Metropolitan Archbishop emeritus of Manila
Tagle, Asia’s frontrunner for the papacy, is a charismatic moderate who has not been afraid to criticise the Church for its shortcomings, including over sexual abuse of minors.
Fluent in English, he is an eloquent speaker with self-deprecating humour and, like Francis, is a leading advocate for the poor, migrants and marginalised people.
Nicknamed “Chito”, he was made a cardinal by Benedict XVI in 2012 and had already been considered a candidate for pope in the 2013 conclave in which Francis was elected.
Charles Maung Bo (Myanmar), 76, Archbishop of Yangon
President of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences, Maung Bo was made a cardinal by Pope Francis in 2015, his country’s first and only cardinal.
Bo has called for dialogue and reconciliation in conflict-ridden Myanmar, and after the military coup of 2021 appealed to opposition protesters to remain non-violent.
He has defended the persecuted mainly Muslim Rohingya, calling them victims of “ethnic cleansing”, and spoken out against human trafficking uprooting the lives of many young Burmese.
Peter Turkson (Ghana), 76, Archbishop emeritus of Cape Coast
One of the Church’s most influential cardinals from Africa, Turkson is often mentioned as a possible first black pope – although he said in a 2010 he didn’t want the job, insisting any such pope would “have a rough time”.
He serves as the Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.
Born into a humble family of 10 children, Turkson speaks six languages and has visited the World Economic Forum in Davos multiple times to convince business leaders of the perils of trickle-down economics.
Fridolin Ambongo Besungu (Democratic Republic of Congo), 65, Archbishop of Kinshasa
Ambongo is the only cardinal from Africa on Pope Francis’s Council of Cardinals, the advisory committee to the pontiff.
As president of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar, he signed a letter in January 2024 voicing opposition to the Vatican’s declaration allowing priests to carry out non-liturgical blessings of same-sex unions.
In a 2023 interview, Ambongo proclaimed that “Africa is the future of the Church, it’s obvious”.
Robert Francis Prevost (United States), 69, Archbishop-Bishop emeritus of Chiclayo
A native of Chicago, Prevost is the prefect of the powerful Dicastery for Bishops, which is charged with advising the pope on appointments of new bishops.
He spent years as a missionary in Peru and is the Archbishop-Bishop emeritus of Chiclayo in that South American country.
Made a cardinal by Pope Francis in 2023, he is also the president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.
Timothy Dolan (United States), 75, Archbishop of New York
A jovial, ruddy-faced extrovert with Irish-American roots, Dolan is a theological conservative, fiercely opposed to abortion.
The former archbishop of Milwaukee, he oversaw the fallout from a major sexual abuse scandal in the diocese.
In New York, amid shrinking Church membership, Dolan has reached out to embrace the growing Hispanic population, which is predominantly Catholic.
Additional reporting from Andrew Walsh
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Well where can we see them?z.?
Another f*ckin Father Ted headline/ruling!
We’re actually becoming more backward and more conservative as a country I swear to God!
#embarrassing
The model licked her finger? Well colour me shocked……..
It’s generally the “bigger boned” lady that complains about these things! Green eyed monsters!!
That’s not fair or accurate. The aesthetically challenged usually complain also.
Jebus wait till they see the Hunky Dory add with the man in the bath,Who seems to ejaculate a blow up toy, parodying the 90s flake add funny as…..sorry,I mean perverts objectifying men like, disgusting!
That advert is lovely .. very tasteful, very elegant, beautiful music & beautiful women … The jewellery on the other hand is horrible wouldn’t spend my money on it … Each to their taste i guess … But get over the advert prudes nothing wrong with it in my view !!
Its fine apart from the gratuitous boob shot and the fact that ladies look slightly off their face on something. But yeah, awful jewellery.
If this is the offending advertisement, it looks pretty tasteful to me:
http://www.newbridgesilverware.com/eshe/
What sort of prudes are we at all?
Where can I see them?! Anyone?!
There’s a thing called Google…
I found em in 3.6 seconds and I’d be slow…..I guess we can’t post the link here so find it yesrelf and stop expecting to be hand-fed.
Here ya go https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_SGfpQ5TLM#t=89
I don’t get how the complaint says that its focused on sexualising the woman…you can clear see from the camera work and the direction that the focus was on the jewellery. No doubt that the ad features a very attractive model.
So pontius I take it you have searched for the video and found it within seconds or u just making assumptions?
Don’t Look at it if you don’t like it… simple. .. This isn’t Saudi Arabia
Religious police comes to mind.
Would they prefer the over fed tash wearing ladies showing off the new range of newbridge silver ‘Mum’ rings ?? #MoaningVagMonsters
I find the jewelry pretty awful personally. Draping it in a fine looking woman doesn’t make me think my woman will look like that whilst wearing it. I ain’t stupid – most men aren’t! I reckon this is aimed at women not men.
As for the ad itself – pretty harmless stuff.
I’ve signed up to “He for She” and I’m taking a stand now.
This jewellery ad objectifying women is offensive and I object.
I urge you too to man-up and demonstrate some sense moral outrage.
Evil prevails when good people remain silent.
Hear hear for Emma and her speech at the UN.
Sure. I appreciate your only objection is it’s boring. The advertiser is insulting men by suggesting we will be suckered in with such advertising… and by others making clever remarks they are inadvertently colluding with the advertisers method.
You mean “man-up”. Not sure if I’ve used that then in the right context.
I mean it as a “stand up for what you believe” and not make a sneer for the common cheer.
This advertisement is for jewellery. It’s not aimed at men. It’s aimed at women.
And I don’t believe in infantilising women and placing women’s rights above everyone else’s. maybe if it was an issue that affected women exclusively, I would, but it doesn’t.
HeforShe and campaigns like it are exactly why so many are falling out with modern feminism, why not OneforAll or something like that, why the focus on men “standing up”, and changing their behaviour to suit women, why not stress the importance of not abusing your partner to girls and what about the estimated 40-50% men who are also suffering from domestic violence. Do they have change as well, should they say sorry, and should we ignore them.
Anybody who is against or at least sceptical of modern feminism is so not out of hating women but out of hating sheer intellectual dishonesty and the blatant misconstruing of facts.
But anyway I better before I burst an ulcer.
Peace out people xx
Dead right Doey.
The most annoying folks I come across though are not the feminists. They’re the defenders of feminism who don’t know the first thing about it. They automatically identify when feminism because they see it as the liberal left-wing thing to do, but the have no idea what they are supporting. They’re easy to spot, all you have to do is start talking about things today’s mainstream feminists believe, like patriarchy and rape culture. The response you get is an accusation that you’re conflating extremists with all feminsts. It’s just a default response from those who aren’t big on thinking.
Anyone reading this who fits that description should spend a few minutes researching it. Here are 3 batshit crazy elements of modern mainstream feminism to get you started:
Patriarchy Theory
Rape Culture
Critical Theory
I think it’s quite obvious that the only thing advertisers are selling anymore is sex.
What a load of me arse. The jewellery is gaudy, and the video is so pretentious, I nearly vomited.
Can’t locate the video, but the photographs looks completely tarty. Clearly Newbridge are moving away from they’re more elegant and classy ads for sluty and distasteful. Well done
You’d think it was Saudi Arabia by the music in the ad!
The girl is better looking than the jewelery but her acting is terrible! She looks a bit sedated/ bored….and the lips…was she at the dentist before the shoot? I thought she was going to drool her drink….
have your say