The April 21 death of Pope Francis triggered a period of mourning in the Catholic Church, but also kick-started the race for his successor.
Whether diplomats, theologians, mediators or Vatican insiders, here are 15 cardinals who are among the potential favourites to become the next pope, known as the “papabili”, divided by region.
This list however is by no means exhaustive and Francis’s successor could well be someone else.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
