Who are the Cardinals Who Will Pick the Next Pope?
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Today on State of the World, who are the cardinals who will pick the next pope? You're listening to State of the World from NPR. We bring you the day's most vital international stories up close where they're happening. It's Tuesday, May 6th. I'm Greg Dixon.

Later this week, some 130 cardinals will meet at the Vatican to select a new pope to lead the world's 1.4 billion Catholics. The conclave will be historic for many reasons, but here's one. For the first time, fewer than half those voting cardinals are European. Pope Francis appointed cardinals from Myanmar, Rwanda, Tonga, and many other countries in the global south.

We go to Rome, where NPR's Ruth Sherlock tells us how this could influence who ends up being the next pope. In churches all over Rome this week, cardinals who've flown in for the conclave hold masses. They've traveled from some 70 countries.

In the 1900s, power was concentrated close to Rome. Almost all the cardinals were European. This conclave, the late Pope Francis made sure, will be truly global.

Francis appointed the vast majority, 80% of the 135 cardinals originally eligible to vote in this conclave. We went through a time where it was very much the church focused on the church and I think Francis has been a pope for the world. Alistair Dutton is the Secretary General of Caritas Internationalis. He really wanted a

A world, an economy, a social vision that was focused on people and the poorest. Some of the newer cardinals have direct experience with the hardship of war and extraordinary personal stories, like that of Cardinal Diogenes Nzapalenga from the Central African Republic. A rebel came to hunt...

At the height of the conflict between Christian and Muslim factions in his country, Nzapalenga risked his life to save the nation's leading Muslim figure. The rebels came to fight against the Muslims. I went to look for the imam and I asked him to come and live with me, he says. I saw the hatred in the rebels' eyes.

The Christian cardinal and Muslim imam lived side by side in the cardinal's home and worked to try to end the war. The first non-European pope in centuries, this change in the makeup of cardinals to include more countries from the global south was Pope Francis' quiet revolution. But there is a strong backlash from factions that want to return to a more traditional and perhaps for some more Western-centric tradition.

church. A lot of meals in discreet places where that conversation is going to go on. Father Robert Sirico, who helps run a religious think tank, says having cardinals from many countries who don't know each other, or Rome, could make it easier for the older guard to influence the newcomers. If I were a cardinal, I would be lining up the names of people that I want to know and

and inviting them to dinner or coffee or whatever it happens to be, just to have a few points of reference. The cardinals have been meeting at the Vatican to discuss exactly this. What are the priorities for the church that will shape their choice of pope? I'm here by one of the exits of the Vatican, and this is where the cardinals come out after meeting in the general congregation.

And it is a press scrum. It is dozens of journalists waiting to try to catch one of these cardinals in their black and red robes to get any kind of comment, any kind of clue, any kind of information. They are the people of the moment. I chase Jorge Enrique Jimenez Carvajal from Colombia and ask him, is the diversity of cardinals doing what Francis hoped?

has it changed what they're prioritising in these meetings? This is very clear, Cardinal Carvajal says. The church has opened a new dialogue with the world.

Is it time for another pope from the global south? It's very difficult to say. The only person who knows that, says Carabajal, is God. Ruth Sherlock, NPR News, Rome. That's the state of the world from NPR. Thanks for listening.

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