VATICAN CITY (VATICAN CITY)
Religion News Service - Missouri School of Journalism [Columbia MO]
May 2, 2025
By Aleja Hertzler-McCain and Claire Giangravé
Rumors about pope frontrunner Pietro Parolin have been published this week on various news sites, and sexual abuse watchdogs have raised concerns about his and others’ records.
Rumors have crashed into the pre-conclave meetings, potentially upsetting a frontrunner for the next pope.
The Italian daily Il Tempo published an article on Thursday (May 1), reporting papabile favorite Cardinal Pietro Parolin, secretary of state under Pope Francis, suffered a sudden drop in blood pressure and was assisted by medics for about an hour, a report the Vatican denied.
“No, it did not happen,” said Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni during a meeting with Vatican journalists on Friday (May 2) in Italian.
Colombian Cardinal Jorge Enrique Jiménez Carvajal, who is not an elector due to his age, also denied the report, telling RNS and other reporters in Spanish, “I was in a meeting with Parolin yesterday. He was very well.”
Il Tempo mentioned the alleged health incident only at the end of a long report concerning disgraced Cardinal Angelo Becciu, who withdrew from the conclave due to his involvement in Vatican financial scandals. Some Italian media reports have claimed Parolin is likely to enter the conclave with between 40 and 50 votes out of the 89 needed for the two-thirds majority to elect the next pope.
In the 2013 conclave that elected Pope Francis, media outlets speculated about the ill health of Argentine Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, potentially harming his election. At 76, some cardinals dismissed him as “too old” and spread rumors he was missing a lung, when in reality he was missing a portion of his right lung, according to Vatican reporter Gerard O’Connell. Cardinal Óscar Rodrígeuz Maradiaga eventually argued to his fellow cardinals that Bergoglio was healthy enough to be pope, and Francis’ pontificate lasted almost 13 years.
Secretary of State of the Holy See Cardinal Pietro Parolin speaks during a plenary session at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
Other rumors about Parolin, 70, have swirled this week on various news websites, both Catholic and secular, saying a Parolin backer attacked Pope Francis, that Francis did not trust Parolin at the end of his life and that cardinals found Parolin’s Sunday homily to lack charisma. All those reports cited anonymous prelates.
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Parolin also faced harsh criticism from sexual abuse watchdog BishopAccountability.org at a press conference Friday morning.
“It can be fairly said that no church official in the world has played as pivotal a role in withholding information about sex crimes from civil authorities than Cardinal Parolin,” said Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of the organization.
Barrett Doyle listed cases where government authorities from Australia, Chile, the United Kingdom and Poland contacted Parolin’s office for records related to sex abuse and were denied them, in addition to a similar case in which Swiss researchers were working at the behest of Swiss bishops.
“The decision not to cooperate with Australia’s request hampered the ability of Australian prosecutors to bring child molesters to justice — that’s obstruction of justice,” said Barrett Doyle, pointing responsibility at Parolin.
At the press conference, Filipino survivors raised concerns that Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, another frontrunner, had shown a lack of leadership in tackling sexual abuse in the Philippines during his time as archbishop of Manila.
Meanwhile, on Friday morning, a crew installed the chimney that will tell the faithful in St. Peter’s Square if the cardinals gathered in the Sistine Chapel selected a pope. During the conclave, the cardinals’ ballots are sown together and burned in a stove that issues black smoke if the two-thirds majority needed to elect the pope has not been achieved. White smoke is released when a new pope is elected.
Latin American cardinals leaving the general congregation meetings expressed a sense of hope and excitement about the process. They pushed back on worries that the geographically diverse College of Cardinals was struggling to find unity.
Jiménez Carvajal denied to reporters that the cardinals were polarized and said of unity, “We have to build it, and it is difficult to build it.”
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Multiple cardinals said they were still getting to know one another at the congregations, but the format where they listen to prepared speeches hasn’t allowed them to do so. Cardinal William Goh from Singapore, an elector, told RNS the prelates are still discussing broad issues and defining the characteristics the next pope should have, expressing uncertainty about how long the conclave would take.
“What do I know?” said Salvadoran Cardinal Gregorio Rosa Chávez in Spanish on Friday. A non-elector due to age, on Wednesday he had voiced his hope that the conclave might be over in three to four days.
At the press conference, Bruni told reporters four cardinal-electors have not yet arrived of the 133 expected to vote. Two have already dropped out due to health reasons — Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera, metropolitan archbishop emeritus of Valencia, and Cardinal John Njue, metropolitan archbishop emeritus of Nairobi, Kenya.
Bruni said 25 cardinals had spoken during Friday morning’s general congregation, speaking on themes including continuing Francis’ evangelization, particularly of young people, Eastern churches being “marked by suffering but also by a strong witness of faith,” the “witness of mutual love” in the Gospel and the importance of liturgy and canon law, as well as synodality and its relationship with “overcoming secularism.”
Cardinals mentioned the “counter-witnesses” of sexual abuse and financial scandals, Bruni said.
Jiménez Carvajal told reporters there were “five speeches better than the U.N.,” specifically noting speeches by cardinals from Europe, southern Africa and Toronto, Canada. Two cardinals have roots in Toronto — Frank Leo and Thomas Christopher Collins.
The cardinals will meet again on Saturday, Monday and Tuesday, ahead of the start of the conclave on Wednesday (May 7).
As the debates continue about who will be the successor to Francis, Cardinal Ángel Sixto Rossi of Córdoba, Argentina, a Jesuit and friend of Francis, told RNS in Spanish the best candidate to continue his legacy will have three qualities: “mercy, charity and service to the most vulnerable.”