The death of Pope Francis will trigger a procedure at the Vatican, to take the place of the Sovereign Pontiff. The rumors on the successor of the sovereign pontiff had started at the Holy See long before his death.
The health of Pope Francis, who died this Easter on Monday, April 21, worried for weeks or even months. While François began his 12th year of pontificate in 2025, he had to be hospitalized on Friday, February 14: the 88 -year -old man had been admitted to a clinic in Rome for a bronchitis which turned out to be a “polymicrobial infection of the airways” had made the Vatican. A new health problem, after a series of hospitalizations that occurred between 2021 and 2023, which immediately relaunched questions on the succession of the Church.
Pope Francis had warned that he did not intend to give up his role as sovereign pontiff as his predecessor had done, Benoît XVI at the age of 85, despite his health problems. “We do not run with a knee, but with the head,” he said, “he said, his letter of resignation would have been written, and this since the day of his election. But if the pope’s renunciation has not been envisaged, discussions on the succession of the Sovereign Pontiff are heard in the Vatican corridors for a long time, as soon as the octogenarian presents his first signs of weakness …” to evoke the next conclave, “already slipped a wise observer to Paris Match in 2023.
Who will be the successor to Pope Francis?
Pope Francis’s successor could be difficult to appoint during the next conclave. The sovereign pontiff has very little brought together the Cardinals college since his arrival at the Holy See. Consequences: the prelates responsible for electing the one who succeeds the pope at his death are little know and may have trouble agreeing on a name. There is however, according to Le Figaroa list of possible successors in which would appear several cardinals. Three of them would be in the position.
A name insistently returns: that of the Italian cardinal Pietro Parolin, the secretary of state and number 2 of the Holy See. The man is recognized for his mastery of files and his diplomacy after weighted certain positions of Pope Francis. He would be competed by Matteo Maria Zuppi, Archbishop of Bologna and by the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa. However, none of these three favorites would currently be really better placed than the others. The first being estimated too “erased”, the second too close to the Sant Egidio movement, an association of Catholic faithful, while the last, 58, is deemed too young.
A Frenchman in the list of contenders for the Holy See
Apart from these three Italians, other Europeans would be on the list of potential successors to the Sovereign Pontiff. In Hungary, Cardinal Peter Erdo is known, but some people consider him “little charismatic”. Faced with him, in Sweden, Cardinal Anders Arborelius could create surprise. In the list is also placed Spanish, Portuguese but also Asian cardinals. One of the names cited to succeed Pope Francis is that of a French: it is the Archbishop of Marseille, Jean-Marc Aveline. The religious was only mentioned in the “thirteenth” position, but he stood out by the Vatican, for good reasons, during the summer visit of the Pope in the Marseille city in September 2023.
Aged 65 and a doctoral student in theology, Jean-Marc Aveline founded the Institute of Science and Theology of Religions of Marseille. He was appointed in 2013 titular bishop and then in 2019 Archbishop of Marseille by Pope Francis. He would share the latter’s ideas on tolerance policy about migrants and his vision of a less European-centered Church. His weak point would be that he does not speak Italian.
If it is perhaps not a French who will be elected to the Holy See, it is a Frenchman who could announce the name of the next sovereign pontiff if the election was held in the coming months. The custom wants it to be the oldest voter cardinal who proclaims the election of a pope and, in this case, it is the cardinal of Corsican origin Dominique Mamberti. In 2013, it was already a French cardinal who announced the election of Jorge Bergoglio as a new head of the Holy See.