Who are the cardinals expected to succeed Pope Francis?

In the weeks following the terrorist attacks of October 7 in Israel and the first bombardments of Gaza, it is said that the secretary of state was questioned: “Will the Holy See send someone to carry a message of peace?” The answer would have been: “Useless, we have the cardinal Pizzaballa. »»

Nothing predestined, the Italian son of a worker to become “the voice of Jerusalem”. Nothing except obedience. She is a cardinal virtue for the Franciscan religious who has recovered from her since he made solemn profession in the order of the minor brothers in 1985. In 1990, he was 25 years old, he was sent, three weeks after his priestly ordination, in Jerusalem to do biblical studies. He never left her.

After three years, spent at the Flagellation Convent, the 2nd Station of the Cross, in the Muslim district link, he continued his biblical studies, in Hebrew, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the only Christian student in the department. Around him, no one knows the Jesus, Christ. It is in the categories of Judaism that he is led to respond. Solid friendships will be born there and with it the possibility of entering the intimate of Israeli realities.

Successively Curé (2001) then Vicar Patriarchal of Catholics of Hebrew Expression (2005), Provincial (2004) of the Franciscans on the territory of Custody (Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Cyprus, Rhodes), administrator of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem (2016) and Patriarch (2020) Questions around the presence of Christians in the Middle East, between interreligious dialogue and geopolitical dynamics.

Roded with interreligious and ecumenical dialogue, he also got to know the workings of diplomacy. But it is not for his skill to be a man of power that Christians – all denominations combined – appreciate him but for his solicitude to all. For the gaze and attention he has to each camp, trying to reconcile what can be and preparing hearts to choose a demanding peace.

In the Holy Land, he is the cardinal of all: Christians but also Jews and Muslims without giving up showing that he has eyes only for Christ.

Marie-Armelle Beaulieu