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.EUROPEPietro Parolin (Italy), 70, Vatican Secretary of StateThe 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 JerusalemPizzaballa 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 BolognaZuppi, 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, 66Born 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 StockholmAppointed 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 GozoGrech 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-BudapestAn 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 LuxembourgA 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. ASIALuis Antonio Tagle (Philippines), 67, Metropolitan Archbishop emeritus of ManilaTagle, 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 YangonPresident 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. AFRICA 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 KinshasaAmbongo 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”.AMERICASRobert 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 YorkA 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. 

Pope Francis, who died Monday aged 88, will go down in history as a radical pontiff, a champion of underdogs who forged a more compassionate Catholic Church while stopping short of overhauling centuries-old dogma.Dubbed “the people’s Pope”, the Argentine pontiff loved being among his flock and was popular with the faithful, though he faced bitter opposition from traditionalists within the Church.The first pope from the Americas and the southern hemisphere, he staunchly defended the most disadvantaged, from migrants to communities battered by climate change, which he warned was a crisis caused by humankind.But while he confronted head-on the global scandal of sex abuse by priests, survivors’ groups said concrete measures were slow in coming.From his election in March 2013, Jorge Mario Bergoglio was eager to make his mark as the leader of the Catholic Church. He became the first pope to take the name Francis after Saint Francis of Assisi, a 13th-century mystic who renounced his wealth and devoted his life to the poor.”How I would like a poor church for the poor,” he said three days after his election as the 266th pope.He was a humble figurehead who wore plain robes, eschewed the sumptuous papal palaces and made his own phone calls, some of them to widows, rape victims or prisoners.The football-loving former archbishop of Buenos Aires was also more accessible than his predecessors, chatting with young people about issues ranging from social media to pornography — and talking openly about his health.Francis always left the door open to retiring like his predecessor Benedict XVI, who in 2013 became the first pontiff since the Middle Ages to step down.After Benedict died in December 2022, Francis became the first sitting pope in modern history to lead a papal funeral.He suffered increasingly poor health, from colon surgery in 2021 and a hernia in June 2023 to bouts of bronchitis and knee pain that forced him to use a wheelchair.His fourth hospitalisation, of more than a month for bronchitis in both lungs, was his longest, raising speculation he might step down. But he brushed off talk of quitting, saying in February 2023 that papal resignations should not become “a normal thing”.In a 2024 memoir, he wrote that resignation was a “distant possibility” justified only in the event of “a serious physical impediment”.- Kissed prisoners’ feet -Before his first Easter at the Vatican, he washed and kissed the feet of prisoners at a Rome prison.It was the first in a series of powerful symbolic gestures that helped him achieve enthusiastic global admiration that eluded his predecessor.For his first trip abroad, Francis chose the Italian island of Lampedusa, the point of entry for tens of thousands of migrants hoping to reach Europe, and slammed the “globalisation of indifference”.He also condemned plans by US President Donald Trump during his first term to build a border wall against Mexico as un-Christian.After Trump’s re-election, Francis denounced his planned migrant deportations as a “major crisis” that “will end badly”.In 2016, with Europe’s migration crisis at a peak, Francis flew to the Greek island of Lesbos and returned to Rome with three families of asylum-seeking Syrian Muslims.He was also committed to inter-faith reconciliation, kissing the Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow in a historic February 2016 encounter, and making a joint call for freedom of belief with leading Sunni cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb in 2019.Francis re-energised Vatican diplomacy in other ways, helping facilitate a historic rapprochement between the United States and Cuba, and encouraging the peace process in Colombia.And he sought to improve ties with China through a historic — but criticised — 2018 accord on the naming of bishops.- Climate appeal -Experts credited Francis with having influenced the landmark 2015 Paris climate accords with his “Laudato Si” encyclical, an appeal for action on climate change that was grounded in science.He argued that developed economies were to blame for an impending environmental catastrophe, and in a fresh appeal in 2023 warned that some of the damage was “already irreversible”.An advocate of peace, the pontiff repeatedly denounced arms manufacturers and argued that in the myriad of conflicts seen around the globe, a Third World War was underway.But his interventions were not always well received, and he sparked outrage from Kyiv after praising those in war-torn Ukraine who had the “courage to raise the white flag and negotiate”.In his modest rooms in the Vatican’s Casa Santa Marta guesthouse, Francis dealt with stress by writing down his problems in letters to Saint Joseph.”From the moment I was elected I had a very particular feeling of profound peace. And that has never left me,” he said in 2017.He also loved classical music and tango, stopping off once at a shop in Rome to buy records.- ‘Who am I to judge?’ -Francis’s admirers credit him with transforming perceptions of an institution beset by scandals when he took over, helping to bring lapsed believers back into the fold.He will be remembered as the pope who, on the subject of gay Catholics, said: “Who am I to judge?”He allowed divorced and remarried believers to receive communion, and approved the baptism of transgender believers as well as blessings for same-sex couples.But he dropped the idea of letting priests marry after an outcry, and despite nominating several women to leading positions inside the Vatican, he disappointed those who wanted women allowed to be ordained.Critics accused him of tampering dangerously with tenets of Catholic teaching, and he faced strong opposition to many of his reforms.In 2017, four conservatives cardinals made an almost unheard of public challenge to his authority, saying his changes had sown doctrinal confusion among believers.But his Church showed no inclination to relax its ban on artificial contraception or opposition to gay marriage — and he insisted that abortion was “murder”.Francis also pushed reforms within the Vatican, from allowing cardinals to be tried by civilian courts to overhauling the Holy See’s banking system.He also sought to address the enormously damaging issue of sex abuse by priests by meeting victims and vowing to hold those responsible accountable.He opened up Vatican archives to civil courts and made it compulsory to report suspicions of abuse or its cover-up to Church authorities.But critics say his legacy will be a Church that remains reluctant to hand paedophile priests over to the police.- ‘Raised on pasta’ -Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born into an Italian emigrant family in Flores, a middle-class district of Buenos Aires, on December 17, 1936.The eldest of five children, he was “born an Argentine but raised on pasta”, wrote biographer Paul Vallely.From 13, he worked afternoons in a hosiery factory while studying to become a chemical technician in the mornings. Later he had a brief stint as a nightclub bouncer.He was said to have liked dancing and girls, even coming close to proposing to one before, at age 17, he found a religious vocation.Francis later recounted a period of turmoil during his Jesuit training, when he became besotted with a woman he met at a family wedding.By then he had survived a near-fatal infection that resulted in the removal of part of a lung. His impaired breathing scuppered his hopes of becoming a missionary in Japan.He was ordained a priest in 1969 and appointed the provincial, or leader, of the Jesuits in Argentina just four years later.His time at the helm of the order, which spanned the country’s years of military dictatorship, was difficult.Critics accused him of betraying two radical priests who were imprisoned and tortured by the regime. No convincing evidence of the claim ever emerged but his leadership of the order was divisive and, in 1990, he was demoted and exiled to Argentina’s second-largest city, Cordoba.Then, in his 50s, Bergoglio is seen by most biographers as having undergone a midlife crisis.He emerged to embark on a new career in the mainstream of the Catholic hierarchy, reinventing himself first as the “Bishop of the Slums” in Buenos Aires and later as the pope who would break the mould.