Solely about half 1,000,000 individuals reside in Malta, the tiny set of islands within the Mediterranean that make up considered one of Europe’s smallest nations.
But a Maltese citizen might quickly be elected pope.
Cardinal Mario Grech, 68, the previous bishop of a Maltese island, Gozo, has emerged as a candidate for pope due to his function as secretary normal of the Synod of Bishops, a Vatican physique mandated by canon law to contemplate “questions pertaining to the exercise of the Church on the earth.”
Pope Francis upended the synod’s function by selling a Synod on Synodality, a multiyear assembly for church leaders and lay individuals, together with girls, on the way to work collectively. Francis noticed that course of as vital, explaining it as “journeying collectively.”
Cardinal Grech’s function in stewarding these efforts to open up the church stand in distinction to a few of his personal historical past. Whereas he was bishop of Gozo, from 2005 to 2020, he held conservative stances on a number of points, together with homosexuality and the legalization of divorce, which he opposed when Malta held a referendum in 2011.
He modified his tone underneath Francis, who made him a cardinal in 2020, and is seen as somebody who would deliver continuity to the papacy.
The synod started in 2021 with discussions amongst native church buildings world wide on points they felt most urgent, a uncommon opening for all Catholics to assist chart the church’s future.
If Cardinal Grech grew to become pope, these discussions would undoubtedly go on. Some critics of the process, together with traditionalists who defend an all-male clerical hierarchy, worry it might dilute the authority of the pope and bishops. Others have questioned how consultant the synod has really has been of Catholics, with only a tiny percentage of the nearly 1.4 billion worldwide having participated in meetings.
However synod supporters say it’s the solely approach the church can keep related.
The synod’s future and implementation “shall be essential for the Catholic Church,” which should turn out to be “extra participatory and inclusive,” stated Helena Helena Jeppesen-Spuhler, who works for a Swiss Catholic aid company and was a synod participant.
Failure to enact actual change, she stated, might be deadly for the church, no less than in Central Europe. “If there are not any modifications, will probably be actually difficult, and I feel the cardinals are conscious of this,” she stated.
As secretary normal of the synod, Cardinal Grech emerged as a key determine in that course of. There are 133 cardinals who can vote on the synod, and whereas these cardinals don’t agree on many church points, they might discover consensus on Cardinal Grech’s management expertise and his assist of a extra participatory church on the subject of its governance.
About 60 of these cardinals have been current throughout no less than one of many synod’s monthlong discussions in 2023 and 2024, that means that in a school the place many cardinals don’t know one another as a result of they’re geographically distant, his function within the synod has made him a well-known face to many.
Cardinal Grech has additionally taken up world causes that have been near Francis. Malta is a key level of entry within the Mediterranean for migrants arriving from Africa, and Cardinal Grech has known as on Europe to open its doorways, not shut them. When the warfare broke out in Ukraine in 2022, he raised alarms that fleeing Ukrainian girls and kids have been susceptible to being exploited by human traffickers.
Like different senior church leaders during the last 20 years, Cardinal Grech has been accused by a few of not doing sufficient to reckon with sexual abuse that occurred in his diocese. He is among the cardinals singled out on the web site Conclave Watch, which scrutinizes how some cardinals dealt with abuse instances.
As bishop he started a number of initiatives to confront abuse, together with a commission for protecting children and weak adults. However his critics say that he might have finished extra in particular instances.
A few of the allegations in Malta middle on Lourdes Dwelling, an orphanage run by the Dominican Sisters of Malta on Gozo. The church commissioned an inquiry into the orphanage, which closed in 2008 and it apologized that yr. Pope Benedict XVI met privately with some survivors in 2010.
Lara Dimitrijevic, a lawyer who represents two survivors in a constitutional case in opposition to the state presently being heard in Maltese courtroom, stated the church ought to have finished extra for victims, together with providing psychological counseling.
“There was such extreme trauma that these moms of their 50s are nonetheless struggling immediately,” she stated, calling the abuse “vile.”
Certainly one of her purchasers within the lawsuit, Carmen Muscat, 52, stated she was not happy with the function performed by Cardinal Grech, and wished compensation. “We didn’t get justice and it’s not honest,” she stated. Cardinal Grech didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Matthew Mpoke Bigg contributed reporting.
