Cardinal Blase Cupich will quickly journey to Rome to mourn the dying of Pope Francis after which to assist select a successor.
Cupich is considered one of three influential Roman Catholic bishops with Chicago ties, appointed by a newly elected Pope Francis to steer Chicago’s devoted in 2014 and elevated to the position of cardinal, a “prince of the church,” two years later.
Cupich mentioned Monday that the legacy of Francis, the church’s first South American pope, could be encapsulated in a single phrase: mercy.
“He felt as if we had been so reluctant to provide folks typically a second likelihood, to chop them some slack, and he reminded everyone that all of us have benefited from God’s mercy in our lives,” the cardinal mentioned in an interview Monday. “In truth, himself, he mentioned that his calling to the priesthood was as a result of God confirmed him mercy, to start with.
“As we see, as he referred to as it, a world struggle being fought piecemeal and the place there are such a lot of people who find themselves fleeing poverty and violence but additionally the consequences of local weather change, the world wants to point out mercy to these folks. He mentioned that on the final day that he was alive, in his message for Easter to us. After the message was learn, he received within the Popemobile and went out into the sq., down this important avenue, as if he had been saying, in some ways, goodbye to those who he gave the whole lot to.”
The majority of the 135 voting cardinals from all over the world tasked with selecting a brand new pope within the coming weeks had been chosen by Francis, who not solely tapped bishops who shared his worldview of serving the poor and the marginalized but additionally got here from elements of the world the place the variety of Catholics is rising.
Basically, he made the Faculty of Cardinals, because the voting group who elect a pope is named, much less European and fewer white.
At 76, Cupich is a type of made a cardinal by Francis. Now, Cupich is eligible for the primary time to vote in a papal conclave.
He didn’t need to say a lot about that Monday, saying he couldn’t assume but about who could possibly be subsequent within the line of successors to St. Peter.
His solely prediction? The selection received’t come from america.
“I believe it’d be very tough to, you understand, we’re speaking a few nation that has political, financial, army energy on this planet, and so I believe it’s, it’s a stretch to say that it’s prudent to go forward and have somebody who’s from that nation,” Cupich mentioned. “I’m not going to handicap anyone by way of their probabilities. However I believe that’d be a stretch.”
Others have made an identical prediction, saying the American church is just too divided, extra so than bishops elsewhere all over the world, for it to be possible that there can be sufficient help for a single American cardinal to succeed Francis.
As for the place the following pope would come from, Cupich mentioned: “I can’t provide you with an clever reply to that query as a result of emotionally my thoughts and coronary heart will not be there. So I’m going to defer that, and I’m simply going to take the time to grieve. … Sure, there, there’s an agenda afterward that needs to be attended to. However we have to take time and be critical about this era of mourning.”
When the time does are available in a number of weeks to start the method of selecting a brand new pope, Cupich mentioned, “I’m a neophyte, and I’m going to go in there and hear.”
Two cardinals who’ll be a part of the conclave to elect a brand new pope grew up in Chicago.
Cardinal Robert Prevost was named by Francis to steer the highly effective Vatican workplace that screens potential new bishops. He has served as an Augustinian priest and official in Chicago.
Cardinal Wilton Gregory, the primary African American cardinal, finest recognized for main the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., was raised in Englewood. He was a parish priest within the Chicago space and beforehand was a key aide to 2 Chicago cardinals.
