Before a “strange” and “sad” Conclave, Latin America could either consolidate as a source Church or go back to its role as a reflection Church.
With 23 Cardinals, Latin America cannot force or even veto a candidate on its own, but it can influence the outcome of the Conclave and the emerging pontificate. Over the weekend, Latin American lay Catholics issued a letter to their Cardinals.
By Bruno Desidera
The Conclave that will begin next May 7th, starts with what some insiders regard as “almost certain.” The successor of Pope Francis, the first Latin American Pope in history, will very unlikely come from Latin America. The reason is easy to spot: The current conventional wisdom in the old Imperial capital is that it would be unlikely to elect a second Latin American Pontiff after Jorge Mario Bergoglio.
It is difficult that, after a Latin American Pontiff, a choice that in 2013 was disruptive, a second Pontiff from the region could be elected now, says the current conventional wisdom in the old Imperial capital city.
It is a widespread opinion that a European Pope is more suited to deepen and give more stability to the many “construction sites” that remain open after Francis’s pontificate; others, however, think of the possibility that further intuitions and developments could come from new continents, Asia in particular.
Completely understandable assessments, of course even if one could, on the other hand, object that a person from the same continent as Francis could, with his own style and talents, give continuity to the main paths opened by his predecessor.
In any case, these are vague judgments, like the pages full of predictions on the papabili, as the Italian media calls the Cardinals with better chances of becoming Pope these days, those who are literally, "pope-able."
The College of Cardinals has its meetings, the so-called General Congregations, and they are praying together, attentive, as in every conclave, to the “breath” of the Spirit. Which could lead anywhere. Let us all remain in prayer and waiting.
A “strange” Conclave
The point, rather, is another, and concerns the impression of a “strange” Conclave, with a somewhat “sad” flavor. Latin America is, after all, the region with the highest number of baptized people in the world, about 400 million, and home of who was, until April 21st, Bishop of Rome.
Francis brought with him the experience and history of those lands, an original path stemming from the Second Vatican Council, not just a generic breath of fresh air or attention to the poor, which some might superficially view as merely a sociological fact.
Today, however, the pain for his death risks still being too fresh. Not to mention that, in these twelve years, it was the Pope himself who “represented” this part of the world, which from an ecclesial point of view was and is quite fragmented, who took most of the burden of representing a very complex region.
For example, precisely because there was a South American Pope, the presence of Latin America within the Roman dicasteries was not particularly large and, at the time of Francis’ death, only the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, which was also of the first rank, was led by a Latin American, the Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, very close to the Pope.
23 Cardinals in the Sistine Chapel
Before further reflections, however, it is appropriate to propose a brief presentation of the, in any case, large Latin American contingent at the conclave. There are 23 cardinal electors, a significant number, even if, in percentage terms, similar to the size of 2013 (19 cardinals), although there are more Cardinal electors at this Conclave. Of these, only three were electors back in the 2013 Conclave.
Seventeen of these are South Americans, representing eight countries, only Bolivia and Venezuela are missing, as they only have cardinals over eighty; two Mexicans (there were three in the previous Conclave), two from Central America and two more from the Caribbean.
In the first years of Francis’s pontificate, South America was underrepresented in the College of Cardinals, to the advantage, rather, of Central America. A trace, perhaps, of the influence during that period, of Honduran Cardinal Óscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga, now over eighty.
Only in the last Consistories, the meetings where the Pope welcomes his new appointees to the College, Pope Francis gave South America a larger quota of the College of Cardinals. He did so by increasing the number of his Argentine compatriots, and by choosing some figures of undoubted prestige and closer to him. Suffice to say that of the 17 South American Cardinals, five were appointed during the Consistory last December, and three more back in 2023.
These latest appointments have, in fact, represented an injection of significant personalities into the College of Cardinals, but the impression these days is that, even if one puts aside their qualities, few Latin American Cardinals are well known outside the continent.
All the names
The Latin American country with the most cardinals at the Conclave is Brazil, with seven. Two of these Cardinals were also in Rome, electing Francis, back in 2013: João Braz de Aviz, prefect emeritus of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, and Odilo Pedro Scherer, archbishop of São Paulo, a person of great pastoral experience.
Francis appointed, over his 12 years as Pontiff: Orani João Tempesta, archbishop of Rio de Janeiro, who in 2013 welcomed the then recently elected Pope to the World Youth Day; Sérgio da Rocha, Archbishop of San Salvador de Bahia, Primate of Brazil, General Rapporteur at the Synod on Youth in 2017, and member of the Council of Cardinals.
Also, Leonardo Ulrich Steiner, Archbishop of Manaus, the only Cardinal from the Amazon present at the Conclave. He is therefore particularly attuned to that enormous territory, which was the subject of a Synod in 2019; Paulo Cezar Costa, Archbishop of Brasilia, attentive to young people and to social and political dialogue; and last but not least, Jaime Spengler, who currently holds perhaps the two most delicate positions on the subcontinent: that of chair of both the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM, opens page in Spanish or here in English at Wikipedia) and the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB).
We then have Argentina, with four cardinals, three of whom were created in the last two years. Paradoxically, the current archbishop of Buenos Aires, Msgr. Jorge Ignacio García Cuerva, is not present. Instead, his predecessor, Archbishop Emeritus Mario Aurelio Poli, appointed by Francis immediately after his election as Pope.
The delegation has the aforementioned Cardinal Fernández, who until the Pope’s death was prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, and before that was the head of the Archdiocese of La Plata; Ángel Sixto Rossi, Archbishop of Córdoba, a Jesuit brother and friend of Jorge Mario Bergoglio; Vicente Bokalic Iglic, Archbishop of Santiago del Estero and Primate of Argentina. His purple is a consequence of Francis' choice, last year, to make this city in the north of the country, where the first Argentine diocese arose, the primatial seat, instead of the capital.
From the southernmost area of South America, the "Cono Sur", the College includes, for Paraguay, Adalberto Martínez Flores, Archbishop of Asunción and, for Uruguay, the most secular and de-Christianized country on the continent, the Salesian Daniel Fernando Sturla Berhouet, Archbishop of Montevideo.
Close in different ways to Francis’ sensitivity, the four cardinals of the Andean countries. The best known in Italy is the Peruvian Carlos Castillo Mattasoglio, who combines a solid and original theological vision and a strong pastoral attention for the least, knows Italian well and was ordained deacon in Italy.
In recent years, he has been chosen for various services in the Vatican, in the Pontifical Academy for Life, in the Dicastery for the Service to Integral Human Development, for the coordination of the so-called "Study Group 9" on controversial doctrinal, pastoral and ethical issues, on the sidelines of the Synod.
The Academy for Life also includes the Chilean Fernando Natalio Chomalí Garib, who is perceived in some circles as sensitive on ethical issues, but also on the social issues of migration and inclusion. Luis Gerardo Cabrera Herrera, archbishop of Guayaquil, is the cardinal of Ecuador. He has been making frequent calls for peace, in the context of ever-increasing violence.
That subregion also has Luis José Rueda Aparicio, Archbishop of Bogotá, who in the past worked as pastor in areas with a large presence of armed groups and is committed to the reconciliation of the country.
Moving North, Central America is represented by the Nicaraguan Leopoldo José Brenes Solórzano, Primate of a Church today persecuted by the regime (see the story linked above) and by Guatemalan Álvaro Leonel Ramazzini Imeri, Bishop of Huehuetenango, very attentive to migrants and violence (see the story linked below).
The two cardinals of the Caribbean, the Cuban Juan de la Caridad García Rodríguez, Archbishop of Havana, and the Haitian Chibly Langlois, Bishop of Les Cayes, also operate in very difficult contexts.
Finally, Mexico, with the primate Carlos Aguiar Retes, archbishop of Mexico City, with what some see as a solid pastoral sensitivity, former president of both the Mexican conference of bishops and the already mentioned CELAM, and José Francisco Robles Ortega, archbishop of Guadalajara, also present at the 2013 conclave.
Then there are at least two other cardinals particularly linked to Latin America: the U.S., Chicago born, Robert Francis Prevost, until now prefect for the Dicastery of Bishops and chair of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. He spent several years in Peru, leading the Augustinian order and then serving as bishop of Chiclayo from 2014 until his appointment in Rome (see the story linked below).
Finally, the archbishop of Rabat (Morocco), the Spaniard Cristóbal López Romero, a Salesian, with significant missionary experience in Paraguay and Bolivia.
A «source Church» also for the future
Naturally, the choice of the next pope, to which the 23 Latin American cardinals will certainly also contribute, promises to be very important and delicate for the future of the Church. However, an equally important point, especially from Latin America, and certainly more relevant than the individual careers, is the development of that peculiar continental ecclesial path that, with the election of Pope Francis, found full “dignity” and centrality.
It was the Brazilian theologian and philosopher Henrique Cláudio de Lima Vaz (opens a Wikipedia article in Portuguese; you can also read this article on "Latin American Theology" at the Encyclopaedia of Theology at the British University of Saint Andrews dealing with Lima Vaz and other theologians from the region), when speaking about the 1968 meeting of Latin American Bishops in Medellín, Colombia, wrote about the «source Church,» a notion also developed by other theologians, such as Peruvian Gustavo Gutiérrez, in opposition to the contrary notion of the «reflection Church.»
From the Council, in short, a vision of the Church would emerge from Latin America, historically, existentially, theologically, ideally, and institutionally, emerging as original and “generative,” not dependent, as some suspected, on European visions and ideologies.
A path that has encountered much resistance (still clearly visible), contradictions, betrayals, but which has also been set magisterially by the documents issued by the general conferences of the Latin American Episcopate of Medellín (1968), Puebla (1979), Santo Domingo (1992) and Aparecida (2007).
Francis’s pontificate is the fruit and expression of this heritage, closely linked to the vision of the Church one finds in the documents of the Second Vatican Council, and certainly not of a true or presumed Peronism.
Among the key points: the centrality of the poor, initially seen as a “choice” (Medellín) and then as a “preferential option” (starting at Puebla): an option lacking, of course, a sociological or ideological heart, but strictly rooted in the Gospel; a second preferential option, less known, but no less significant, for young people; a vision of the Church as the people of God on a journey through history, a necessary premise for a truly synodal Church, as seen, for example, in the journey of the Church in the Amazon.
Also, the primacy of attention to the person in his or her situation and of the pastoral approach, these too being the premises of a Church that proclaims the Gospel without giving up “immersing” itself in history.
Francis, then, has put a lot of his own into it, starting from some formidable and synthetic intuitions, such as that of the “outbound Church.” Naturally, he brought his own merits and also his unavoidable human limitations to his pontificate.
In 2013, perhaps in a confused and not fully conscious way, it was believed that this vision of the Catholic Church, centered on evangelization, could “awaken” a tired, self-referential Catholicism. In part, it happened; in part, some processes have proved long and complex.
But, also thanks to all this, the Church has made a “leap forward.” Certainly, this legacy cannot be dispersed, if anything it must be deepened and made more “choir”-like, if one considers that many, even in these days, still treats it as if it was a subculture.
And this is why the path followed by the Latin American Church in the ongoing Conclave and in the coming years, could still be decisive.
Letter to the Cardinals
Over the weekend, through various media outlets and social media accounts, grassroots organizations of Catholic laypersons from Latin America issued a letter addressing the 23 cardinals from the region who will participate in the conclave. The full content of the letter appears below:
Letter to our Cardinals:
With deep love for the Church, we write to you as people of Latin America and the Caribbean, lay women and men who, with hope, live our faith incarnated in our daily life. We address you, those responsible for discerning who will be the next Bishop of Rome, to express our gratitude, our longings, and our prayers.
Pope Francis has left a profound mark on our hearts and communities. His approachable, humble, and prophetic pastoral style revealed us a human Church: poor for the poor, open to dialogue, Good Samaritan, and missionary. His consistent life, his simplicity, his clear words, and his commitment to the marginalized, to the Earth, our Common Household, to social justice, and to the Church’s reform processes restored hope and reminded us that the Catholic Church can preach and bear witness to Jesus, who is mercy.
We thank Francis for opening processes: synodality, deepening interreligious dialogue, revaluing the role of laity, and including those who have historically been marginalized or excluded from church and social spheres, such as women, Indigenous peoples, social and popular movements, and the LGTBQ+ communities.
We also deeply appreciate his focus on the most vulnerable: migrants, victims of human trafficking, those with addictions, and victims of violence. He was a Pope who made himself present with concrete gestures, such as his visits to refugee homes, his fight against corruption, and his courage in firmly addressing abuses within the Church. We appreciate your recognition of ministries for women, your promotion of a co-responsible Church, and your constant call for lay persons to engage with love and responsibility in ecclesial life.
We recall with emotion that as a religious leader, he spoke clearly truth to power regarding children becoming victims of war, and that he constantly insisted on the importance of global peace, even in the most difficult contexts.
Today, as People of God, we feel a duty to share with you our concerns and desires:
- May the new Pope continue, consolidate, and deepen the path opened by Francis, faithful to the Gospel preached by Jesus and to the teachings of the Second Vatican Council.
- May the new Pope be a pastor who walks alongside his people, with the poor, with young people, with women, with the elderly, with children, with those seeking peace, and with those who desire to believe.
- May the new Pope be willing to live with simplicity, without privileges, guarding the trust of the People of God. Our pastors cannot live as princes, but among their sheep, like Jesus the Good Shepherd.
- May the new Pope promote authentic participation of the laity at all levels of our Church, not as a concession but as an acknowledgment of baptismal co-responsibility. Attending to a necessary demasculinization of the Church, because Church is a woman.
- May the new Pope continue to promote a synodal Church that discerns in community, listens with the heart, and walks with everyone, everyone, everyone.
- May the new Pope continue to promote care for our Common Home, based on an integral, prophetic, and concrete ecology.
- May the new Pope listen with commitment to the voices of those who suffer, including victims of abuse, and act firmly and justly. These crimes cannot be tolerated; on the contrary, they must be acknowledged and redressed with complete transparency.
- May the new Pope promote the responsible addressing of the material and spiritual needs of humanity and Catholic communities, so as to acknowledge and rectify issues, thus healing the wounds caused by clericalism and the abuse of power.
- May the new Pope acknowledge the diversity of our humanity—cultural, social, sexual, spiritual—as a gift from God, not a threat, so as to continue progress in the inclusion of historically marginalized groups, such as women, and promote them to positions of responsibility in the Church, since we are all baptized.
- May we all be a Church of witnesses, a Church able to be transformed by feeling loved by God's mercy, and may we courageously and freely allow the Holy Spirit to work..
We also ask, with special emphasis, for progress in financial transparency throughout the Church, including dioceses, religious orders, and ecclesial properties, may the new Pope promote clear mechanisms for accountability. May mercy, justice, and truth be the pillars of his pontificate.
We are calling you, our Cardinals, who have a great responsibility to respond to this historic moment.
We trust that you will know how to listen to the Spirit who speaks also in the cry of the people, in the whispers of the little ones, in the voice of the wounded Earth, in the tears of victims, and in the silent witness of millions of faithful who continue to believe, love, and serve in the peripheries, and also of those who, due to deep wounds, have lost their faith.
Today, with all our hearts, we ask you not to stop the journey. May the new Pope be elected by overcoming political, economic, or ecclesial selfishness, with his gaze fixed on the Kingdom of God, his People, and the Gospel. May the Holy Spirit blow strongly, continue to surprise us, and encourage you to choose the shepherd who will help us to love more and better.
With faith, hope, and love.
Latin American Laypersons Network
One of the Latin American laypersons organizations releasing the letter was the Colectivo Teresa de Ahumada y Cepeda of Pachuca, Hidalgo, Mexico.
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Translated from the Italian and Spanish originals to English and edited by Rodolfo Soriano-Núñez.
The original at "La Chiesa Latinoamericana al Conclave".