VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Representing slightly over 4% of the globe’s Catholics however practically 8% of those that will take part within the papal conclave, the ten American cardinals in Rome this week have already got outsized numerical affect in selecting the subsequent pope. They boast deep, if painfully gained, expertise in dealing with clergy sexual abuse, a problem that has bedeviled the church for many years, and are thought-about in a position monetary directors.
Not least, the U.S. contingent, who quantity 17 together with the cardinals too outdated to vote, have the deepest pockets of any nationwide church, which is the largest contributor by a large margin to the pope’s charitable fund, referred to as Peter’s Pence.
“Whereas America could now not be the superpower it was, U.S. Catholicism continues to be a superpower,” stated Massimo Faggioli, a professor of theology at Villanova College and main Vatican knowledgeable.
What the American cardinals don’t deliver is unity. “ It’s unimaginable to view them as one single voting bloc,” stated Dan Cosacchi, vice chairman for mission and ministry on the College of Scranton. Whereas not neatly matching U.S. political ideology, the cardinals might be categorized as favoring “continuity with” or “rupture from” Pope Francis’ papacy.
Francis made six of the voting cardinals and provided them essential positions within the Vatican forms generally known as the Curia. That makes them able to articulating the late pope’s message and imaginative and prescient for the way forward for the church.
Among the many most outspoken is Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich, 76, a member of the Vatican’s division overseeing the appointment of bishops since 2016. He has used this place to information his alternatives to essential posts, sending two of his present or former auxiliary bishops to larger positions previously 4 months alone, at the same time as Francis gave him 5 extra auxiliaries in December, an unusually excessive quantity.
Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley, left, speaks to media, flanked by Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, Chicago archbishop, proper, throughout a four-day intercourse abuse summit referred to as by Pope Francis, in Rome, on Feb. 22, 2019. (RNS picture/Jack Jenkins)
Two weeks later, Francis despatched Cardinal Robert McElroy, 71, an in depth ally, from San Diego to Washington, the place he has continued to echo the late pontiff’s concern for migrants and the surroundings and his openness to LGBTQ folks.
McElroy’s predecessor in Washington, Cardinal Wilton Gregory, 77, is one other Francis ally. The primary African American cardinal to take part in a conclave, Gregory served as president of the U.S. Convention of Catholic Bishops within the early 2000s, fashioning the Constitution for the Safety of Youngsters and Younger Folks, generally generally known as the Dallas Constitution, creating zero tolerance procedures for abuse and safeguarding practices to stop abuse.
These cardinals’ pastoral method appeals to Catholics who’ve fallen away from the church, stated Cosacchi, particularly their shift in tone on LGBTQ acceptance. A 2023 ballot from the Public Faith Analysis Institute discovered that greater than half of former Catholics cited unfavorable instructing about homosexual and lesbian folks in leaving the church.
The voting cardinals, nonetheless, additionally comprise among the staunchest opponents of Francis’ type and imaginative and prescient. Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, 76, has been an outspoken critic, particularly regarding Francis’ overtures to LGBTQ+ Catholics and his cautious opening to divorced and or remarried {couples} to obtain Communion.
Appointed by Pope Benedict XVI to the Vatican’s supreme court docket, the Apostolic Signatura, in 2008, Burke turned patron of the Sovereign Navy Order of Malta below Francis as properly. However Burke’s grinding opposition to Francis finally led the pope to strip him of his Vatican stipend and dwelling quarters in 2023. The indignity has solely bolstered his place because the de facto chief of conservative prelates more likely to sway votes away from candidates who’re in sync with Francis.
Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston delivers remarks on Nov. 13, 2017, on the U.S. Convention of Catholic Bishops’ annual fall assembly in Baltimore. DiNardo was USCCB president on the time. (AP Photograph/Patrick Semansky)
Houston Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, 75, can be seen as conservative however has publicly emphasised his approval of Francis. As president of the U.S. bishops’ convention in 2016, DiNardo pushed again on the concept that his election was anti-Francis in an interview with Crux, saying, “In the event that they need to construe this as one way or the other I’m not with Pope Francis, that’s loopy.”
Cardinal James Michael Harvey, 75, has held a number of essential positions on the Vatican over the past three papacies and for twenty years was head of the papal family earlier than turning into archpriest of the Basilica of St. Paul Exterior the Partitions. Doctrinally conservative, he has an intensive data of the church’s inside workings and is claimed to worth discretion above all.
The difficulty all of the American cardinals will doubtless communicate strongly about is the monetary and financial reform began by Benedict and continued by Francis. The final Vatican finances report, in 2022, confirmed losses averaging roughly $98 million per yr, an indebted pension fund and declining donations.
Irish-born American Cardinal Kevin Farrell, 77, who was among the many specialists on the Vatican’s funds who briefed their fellow prelates on the finances on Wednesday (April 30), can be the papal camerlengo, the interim govt of the church and a key determine within the transition to a brand new pope. Since 2020, Farrell has been president of the Fee for Confidential Issues, which has the ability to restrict any authorized, monetary and financial matter to secrecy “for the better good of the church.” In 2022 he turned chair of the Pontifical Committee for Investments.
John Carr, a longtime lay division head for the U.S. bishops’ convention who admired Farrell’s work on Latino Catholic points within the Archdiocese of Washington, stated it was “gorgeous” to see Farrell “on the epicenter” of this significant interval for the church.
Cardinals attend a Mass presided over by Cardinal Pietro Parolin in St. Peter’s Sq. on the Vatican on the second of 9 days of mourning for Pope Francis, on April 27, 2025. (AP Photograph/Andreea Alexandru, File)
One nick in Farrell’s status is that he served carefully in Washington with former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, a recognized abuser, however all 10 U.S. cardinal-electors have confronted some scrutiny for a way they’ve dealt with sexual abuse instances. SNAP, the survivors’ advocacy group, has filed official stories making accusations of mishandling abuse for about 9 of them, of various severity, and has aired complaints with all 10.
Few consider that any of the red-hatted Individuals will likely be elected pope, as cardinals historically need to maintain the church separate from political and financial hegemons.
However Faggioli, pointing to the declining affect of the US on the planet, stated, “An American pope is much less unimaginable than one would possibly suppose.”
Whereas nonetheless a longshot, two U.S. cardinals are rumored to be papabili, or potential popes. Chicago-born Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, 69, was appointed by Francis in 2023 to move the division overseeing bishops, making him a well-known determine amongst prelates. “He is aware of each bishop and cardinal personally like few others do,” Faggioli stated.
A canon legislation knowledgeable and a polyglot who turned the prior normal of the Augustinian order in 2001, Prevost is seen as “a reasonable, balanced determine, recognized for strong judgment and a eager capability to hear,” Vatican knowledgeable John Allen wrote on Crux.
What makes Prevost significantly interesting is his un-Americanness, as he spent his early life in Rome and later in Peru, the place he headed a Augustinian seminary. After returning to Chicago in 1999, and serving two phrases as the pinnacle of the Augustinians, Prevost was despatched again to Peru by Francis and at last to Rome.
However Prevost has a shaky background in dealing with intercourse abuses instances in his dioceses in Chicago and in Peru, elevating questions on his means to advertise accountability as pope. His positions on outreach to LGBTQ Catholics and girls’s ordination are arduous to pinpoint, however he has been a devoted promoter of Francis’ paperwork and message.
Some information stories have positioned Newark, New Jersey, Cardinal Joseph Tobin, 72, in line to develop into the subsequent pope. Coming to Rome as a rising star in his non secular order, the Redemptorists, Tobin lamented having to surrender taking part in ice hockey after struggling to discover a league in Rome.
In 2010 Benedict tapped him as secretary for the Vatican division overseeing non secular orders, however because the pope cracked down on the more and more impartial Management Convention of Ladies Spiritual, which at present represents about two-thirds of U.S. Catholic sisters, Tobin objected, in keeping with rumors, and was reassigned. Those that know him say that the cardinal, who has eight youthful sisters, has a particular regard for ladies, and he as soon as claimed he wouldn’t oppose ladies as cardinals.
Cardinal Joseph William Tobin attends a Mass on the fifth of 9 days of mourning for late Pope Francis, in St. Peter’s Basilica on the Vatican, April 30, 2025. (AP Photograph/Alessandra Tarantino)
Tobin led the archdioceses of Indianapolis after which Newark and was elevated to cardinal by Francis in 2016. Like Francis, the speaker of 5 languages has lengthy been outspoken in favor of immigrants. Lately, he hosted one of many first interfaith providers in solidarity with immigrants every week forward of the second Trump administration in a format that may develop into a development for different bishops.
Tobin has additionally confronted a Vos Estis report from SNAP about his dealing with within the Newark Archdiocese of the legacy of McCarrick’s abuse.
Additionally among the many papally talked about is Cardinal Timothy Dolan from New York, 75, however mainly by the Mentioner-in-Chief, U.S. President Donald Trump, with whom Dolan has a chummy relationship. Dolan stated a prayer on the president’s second inauguration and will likely be among the many voting cardinals on the conclave.
However Trump’s informal endorsement of Dolan, a former president of the U.S. Convention of Catholic Bishops, could have hindered his likelihood of being a trusted voice on this conclave. “He has develop into very carefully related to Donald Trump and that isn’t going to assist him be credible within the eyes of different cardinals,” Faggioli stated.
Plenty of nonvoting cardinals from the U.S. regardless have a voice in the course of the pre-conclave conferences on the Vatican. Chief amongst them is the Capuchin friar and Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley, 80, who’s finest recognized for tackling the aftermath of the sexual abuse and cover-up within the Archdiocese of Boston. He went on to occupy influential Vatican positions below Francis, beginning with the Pontifical Fee for the Safety of Minors from 2014.
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Cardinal Donald Wuerl, 84, who adopted McCarrick as archbishop of Washington, is seen by his fellow cardinals as a churchman able to overcoming ideological divides, although he too is tainted by accusations that he did not handle McCarrick’s crimes. Cardinal Roger Mahony, 89, archbishop of Los Angeles from 1985 to 2011, was accused of transferring abusive clergymen relatively than reporting them to authorities authorities. His successor, Archbishop Jose H. Gomez, eliminated him from all of his obligations within the diocese in 2013.
Nonetheless, Mahony, a Francis ally lately, was allowed to vote within the 2013 conclave that elected Francis and was an official witness to the sealing of Francis’ coffin on April 25, inflicting uproar from advocates of clergy abuse survivors.
The remaining nonvoting cardinals are extra conservative and convey an insider’s understanding of the church to the conclave. They embrace Cardinal Frederick O’Brien, 80, former archbishop of Baltimore and of the U.S. Navy Companies; Cardinal Adam Maida, 95, who was archbishop of Detroit and an skilled canon lawyer, and held a number of positions within the U.S. bishops’ convention; and Cardinal Justin Rigali, 90, former archbishop of St. Louis and later Philadelphia who was compelled to resign after intercourse abuse scandals on his watch.
Cardinal James Stafford, 92, served as archbishop of Denver earlier than turning into the pinnacle of the papal fee overseeing laity. A Catholic conservative in terms of theological points, he was a robust critic of the Obama administration, which he described in 2008 as “aggressive, disruptive and apocalyptic.”
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