Pope Francis Passes Away: Check Potential List of Successors. How Is New Pope Elected?

Pope Francis Passed Away: Pope Francis died at the age of 88 during Easter Monday at his residence in the Vatican's Casa Santa Marta. His death was confirmed at 9:45 am by Cardinal Kevin Farrell, Camerlengo of the Apostolic Chamber. Pope Francis's health condition had worsened critically since mid-February. He was admitted to Rome's Gemelli Hospital earlier. With Pope Francis's death, who would take his place now?

Although any official statement related to Pope Francis's successor is yet to be made, however, there are potential names who could take his role.

As per the Outlook India report, the potential successor list names are

1. Cardinal Pietro Parolin:

Born on January 17, 1955, Pietro Parolin is an Italian Catholic prelate who has served as the Vatican's Secretary of State since 2013. He is also a member of the Council of Cardinals since 2014, the same year he was made a cardinal.

Before this, he worked in the diplomatic service of the Holy See for about 3 decades. During his diplomatic service, his projects included terms in Nigeria, Mexico and Venezuela, as well as more than six years as Undersecretary of State for Relations with States.

2. Cardinal Peter Erdo:

Born on June 25, 1952, Peter Erdo is a Hungarian cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church who has served as the Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest and Primate of Hungary since 2003. He was president of the Council of the Bishops' Conferences of Europe from 2006 to 2016 and was the relator general for the Third Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in Rome, as per Wikipedia.

3. Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle:

Currently, serving as the Pro-Prefect for the Section of First Evangelization of the Dicastery for Evangelization (formerly the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples). Tagle held this role since June 2022. Born on June 21, 1957, Tagle was also titled as the 32nd Archbishop of Manila from 2011 to 2020.

Additionally, he has been the president of the Interdicasterial Commission for Consecrated Religious since December 2019, alongside serving as the President of the Catholic Biblical Federation, Grand Chancellor of the Pontifical Urbaniana University, and being member of several other departments and dicasteries in Roman Curia, as per Wikipedia.

4. Cardinal Matteo Zuppi:

Born on October 11, 1995, he is the Archbishop of Bologna since December 2015. Earlier, he was the auxiliary bishop of Rome from 2012 to 2015. Notably, Pope Francis had raised his rank to cardinal in the year 2019. Meanwhile, since May 2022, he holds the presidentship of Episcopal Conference of Italy.

How Is A New Pope Selected?

According to United States Conference Of Catholic Bishops, here's how a new pope is elected:

1. When a pope dies or resigns, the governance of the Catholic Church passes to the College of Cardinals. Cardinals are bishops and Vatican officials from all over the world, personally chosen by the pope, recognizable by their distinctive red vestments.

2. Due to a vacancy in the papacy, the cardinals hold a series of meetings at the Vatican called general congregations. They discuss the needs and the challenges facing the Catholic Church globally. They will also prepare for the upcoming papal election, called a conclave. Decisions that only the pope can make, such as appointing a bishop or convening the Synod of Bishops, must wait till after the election. In the past, they made arrangements for the funeral and burial of the deceased pope.

3, For the conclave itself, the cardinal electors process to the Sistine Chapel and take an oath of absolute secrecy before sealing the doors.

4. The cardinals vote by secret ballot, processing one by one up to Michelangelo's fresco of the Last Judgment, saying a prayer and dropping the twice-folded ballot in a large chalice. Four rounds of balloting are taken every day until a candidate receives two-thirds of the vote. The result of each ballot are counted aloud and recorded by three cardinals designated as recorders. If no one receives the necessary two-thirds of the vote, the ballots are burned in a stove near the chapel with a mixture of chemicals to produce black smoke.

5. When a cardinal receives the necessary two-thirds vote, the dean of the College of Cardinals asks him if he accepts his election. If he accepts, he chooses a papal name and is dressed in papal vestments before processing out to the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica.

6. The ballots of the final round are burned with chemicals producing white smoke to signal to the world the election of a new pope.

The information is taken from the respective official websites mentioned above.