Cardinal Blase Cupich will soon travel to Rome to mourn the death of Pope Francis and then to help choose a successor.
Cupich is one of three influential Roman Catholic bishops with Chicago ties, appointed by a newly elected Pope Francis to lead Chicago’s faithful in 2014 and elevated to the role of cardinal, a “prince of the church,” two years later.
Cupich said Monday that the legacy of Francis, the church’s first South American pope, can be encapsulated in one word: mercy.
“He felt as though we were so reluctant to give people sometimes a second chance, to cut them some slack, and he reminded everybody that we all have benefited from God’s mercy in our lives,” the cardinal said in an interview Monday. “In fact, himself, he said that his calling to the priesthood was because God showed him mercy, first of all.
“As we see, as he called it, a world war being fought piecemeal and where there are so many people who are fleeing poverty and violence but also the effects of climate change, the world needs to show mercy to those people. He said that on the last day that he was alive, in his message for Easter to us. After the message was read, he got in the Popemobile and went out into the square, down this main street, as though he were saying, in many ways, goodbye to people that he gave everything to.”
The bulk of the 135 voting cardinals from around the world tasked with choosing a new pope in the coming weeks were chosen by Francis, who not only tapped bishops who shared his worldview of serving the poor and the marginalized but also came from parts of the world where the number of Catholics is growing.
Essentially, he made the College of Cardinals, as the voting group who elect a pope is called, less European and less white.
At 76, Cupich is one of those made a cardinal by Francis. Now, Cupich is eligible for the first time to vote in a papal conclave.
He didn’t want to say much about that Monday, saying he couldn’t think yet about who could be next in the line of successors to St. Peter.
His only prediction? The choice won’t come from the United States.
“I think it’d be very difficult to, you know, we’re talking about a country that has political, economic, military power in the world, and so I think it’s, it’s a stretch to say that it’s prudent to go ahead and have someone who is from that country,” Cupich said. “I’m not going to handicap anybody in terms of their chances. But I think that’d be a stretch.”
Others have made a similar prediction, saying the American church is too divided, more so than bishops elsewhere around the world, for it to be likely that there would be enough support for a single American cardinal to succeed Francis.
As for where the next pope would come from, Cupich said: “I can’t give you an intelligent answer to that question because emotionally my mind and heart is not there. So I’m going to defer that, and I’m just going to take the time to grieve. … Yes, there, there’s an agenda afterward that has to be attended to. But we need to take time and be serious about this period of mourning.”
When the time does come in a few weeks to begin the process of choosing a new pope, Cupich said, “I’m a neophyte, and I’m going to go in there and listen.”
Two cardinals who’ll join the conclave to elect a new pope grew up in Chicago.
Cardinal Robert Prevost was named by Francis to lead the powerful Vatican office that screens potential new bishops. He has served as an Augustinian priest and official in Chicago.
Cardinal Wilton Gregory, the first African American cardinal, best known for leading the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., was raised in Englewood. He was a parish priest in the Chicago area and previously was a key aide to two Chicago cardinals.