Pope Francis, who died on Easter Monday, is being mourned across the world. The pontiff was considered a unifier. Today, the cardinals met to plan the funeral, which will take place on Saturday in front of St Peter’s Basilica. After nine days of official mourning, the process of electing the next Pope, steeped in millennia-old traditions, will begin.
It might be a couple of weeks before we know who the next head of the Roman Catholic Church could be. However, speculation has been rife since the hospitalisation of Pope Francis in February and has only gathered steam after his demise.
Francis made history by becoming the first pontiff from Latin America. Now, there is a growing buzz that the next leader of 1.3 billion Roman Catholics could likely come from Asia. A frontrunner in the race is Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle from the Philippines.
The rise of Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle
Luis Antonio Tagle, 67, is from the Philippines; he is only the seventh Filipino to become a cardinal. It was Pope Francis’ predecessor, Benedict XVI, who created Tangle a cardinal in 2012. At 54, he was one of the youngest to become a cardinal.
More than a decade later, he is one of the popular papal candidates. However, the road to the Vatican has been a long one.
Tangle’s paternal grandfather was from an upper-class Filipino family, while his maternal grandmother was from an affluent Chinese family which migrated to the Philippines. He is one of two children and goes by his nickname “Chito”, which also features on his X profile.
Tangle was preparing to become a doctor but was “tricked” into considering seminary, according to the College of Cardinals Report. He now laughs about how the “jokes” of God can influence one’s life.
Jesuits have played a key role in Tangle’s life, having taught him in his early days. It was in 1982 that Tangle left the Jesuits and was ordained as a priest for the Archdiocese of Manila. He became the spiritual leader and professor at a local seminary and then its rector from 1983 to 1985.
He was sent by his bishop to the United States, where he earned a theology licence. He returned to the Philippines in the 1990s and served the Roman Catholic Church in different positions. Benedict nominated Tagle as archbishop of Manila in 2011. A year on, Tagle became the cardinal.
Over the years, his prominence grew. Tagle became the president of Caritas Internationalis, the Vatican’s charity and the second-largest humanitarian aid network after the Red Cross, in 2015, and was re-elected in 2019. Pope Francis was reportedly “swept away” by the leadership of the body, including that of Cardinal Tangle.
It was in 2019 when Pope Francis called Tagle to stay in Rome as prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, which is responsible for missionary work. Two years later, Pope elevated Tagle to cardinal-bishop, possibly signifying him as a favoured successor at the time, according to the College of Cardinals Report.
Cardinal Tagle, The “Asian Pope Francis”
Tagle is known for his progressive views. He is articulate and a good communicator and uses platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to spread the word. He has been dubbed by some as the “Asian Pope Francis”.
He is known as the champion of the poor in the Philippines and has campaigned on several social issues back home. After Francis’ death, many obituaries hail him as the “voice of the poor”.
Francis made a massive shift toward acceptance of LGBTQ Catholics, making papacy history when he first met people from the queer community from around the world. The Filipino cardinal has also criticised previously “harsh words” of the Catholic Church against LGBT Catholics and divorced couples.
At a conference in 2022, Tagle said churches must be hospitable to all, because “ethnic and cultural issues ruin the spiritual home”, and “populist” attitudes were threatening the proper meaning of the word “people”, reports The Catholic Herald. It echoed the views of Pope Francis, who spoke in favour of migrants.
Like Francis, Tagle is known for his humility. At the seminary in the Philippines where he lived for 20 years, his room was without an air-conditioner or television, reports The Telegraph. When he was made bishop, he did not travel by car but went to work on a bus or jeepney, a popular public transport in the Asian country.
The criticisms of Cardinal Tagle
There has been some criticism of Tagle during his time in the Philippines. In September 2016, the cardinal gave a radio interview where he indirectly criticised the extra-judicial killings as then-President Rodrigo Duterte unleashed a “war on drugs”. He also spoke against abortion, raising eyebrows.
“Many are worried of extrajudicial killings and we should be… But I hope we’re also worried about abortion. Why are only few people speaking out against abortion? That’s also murder,” he said back then.
However, his subtle remarks on the politics in the country did not go down well. Filipino broadsheet, the Manila Standard, said about the then-Archbishop of Manila: “Cardinal Tagle allowed the Church to get involved in partisan politics. He was also very critical of then-President Rodrigo Duterte. What Tagle did was in violation of the separation of Church and State mandated in the Constitution.”
At the Vatican, Tagle’s reputation took a hit when Francis ousted the management of Caritas Internationalis after an external review found management and morale problems at its head office, reports NBC News. While the cardinal called for the review, he, too, was relieved of his duties.
“There might be questions resulting from that about his ability to manage,” Tim Gabrielli, the Gudorf chair in Catholic intellectual traditions at the University of Dayton in Ohio, told NBC.
However, the cardinal has continued his duties. Since June, Tagle has been responsible for the Dicastery for Evangelization, one of the church’s most important departments. So what’s next in store for him?
The possibility of an Asian Pope
Tagle is the frontrunner in the betting markets after Francis’ death. He is one of the youngest papal candidates.
Edward Pentin, a Vatican expert and the author of The Next Pope: The Leading Cardinal Candidates, told The Telegraph, “Five or six years ago, he was Pope Francis’s favourite to succeed him. He’s head of the important new super-dicastery for evangelisation. He’s quite a strong contender. And he’s still relatively young.”
However, the age might not work in his favour. Cardinals are reluctant to vote for someone young. A young pontiff could have a long papacy, and this could come in the way of their ambition of becoming the head of the Roman Catholic Church.
James Somerville-Meikle, the former deputy director of the Catholic Union of Great Britain, told NBC News that Tagle would present himself as a close follower of Francis.
But will that be enough to win the votes from the College of Cardinals? The conclave is known to throw up surprises. The world will know only after white smoke is funnelled from the top of the Sistine Chapel.
