Volume 6, Issue No. 44
OPINION/COMMENTARY
/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /
Our latest as of Wednesday, April 23, 2025
~ The eyes of the world are focused on who would succeed the recently-deceased Pope Francis as head of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics. In the pool of potential candidates compiled by mainstream media, one Filipino stands out - Cardinal Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle, the 67-year-old former Archbishop of Manila and now in the Vatican as Pro-Prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization.
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SEARCH FOR A SUCCESSOR TO POPE FRANCIS
Cardinal Tagle in the Running
The Philippine-Born Prelate Is Among the Candidates
By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ
Editor, The Filipino Web Channel
“The candidate was required to prepare himself by confession, fasting, and passing the night in prayer.” - Horatio Alger
TORONTO - "Dominus est" translates to "God is our leader." That's the motto etched on the coat of arms of Filipino Cardinal Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle.
The 67-year-old prelate is among a dozen or so cardinals listed as "possible candidates" to succeed Pope Francis as head of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics and sovereign of the Vatican City State.
Pope Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, Argentina of parents of Italian descent, had died of a stroke and heart failure on Easter Monday, April 21, at his residence at the Vatican. He was 88.
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His death has kicked off a search for his replacement as the Vicar of Christ, a traditional title accorded to the Pope but which Pope Francis had dropped in 2020 without explanation.
The Vatican says a total of 135 cardinal electors out of 252 cardinals will elect the new pope from a pool consisting of cardinals from several countries, including Canada, Congo, France, Germany, Ghana, Hungary, Italy, Malta, the Philippines, Spain, and the United States.
To be elected pope, a candidate requires a two-thirds supermajority, or 80 votes, assuming 120 cardinal electors participate, according to published reports.
Canada has four cardinals - Frank Leo, 53; Thomas Christopher Collins, 78; Gerald Cyprien Lacroix, 67; and Michael Czerny, 78 - but none appears in a mix of potentials published by BBC, Reuters, Associated Press and USA Today.
Cardinal Tagle's parents are devout Catholics. His father - Manuel Topacio Tagle, is from Imus, Cavite, and mother, an ethnic Filipino Chinese. (More info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Antonio_Tagle).
A former Archbishop of Manila, Cardinal Tagle relocated to Rome after Pope Francis promoted him in 2020 to the rank of Cardinal-Bishop, the highest title of a Cardinal in the Catholic Church.
"He is the first Filipino to hold the highest rank of a cardinal in the Catholic Church," CNN Philippines reported in 2021.
Currently, there are three Filipino cardinal-electors, namely, Tagle, current Pro-Prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization; Jose Advincula, current Archbishop of Manila; and Pablo Virgilio David, current Bishop of Caloocan, according to Wikipedia.
"On paper," according to USA Today, "Tagle, who generally prefers to be called by his nickname 'Chito', seems to have all the boxes ticked to qualify him to be a pope."
Since 1960, the Philippines has produced ten cardinals. The country has one of the world's largest Catholic populations, with Catholicism constituting the country's largest religious denomination. (Copyright 2025. All Rights Reserved).
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