I covered Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle during the eight years he was archbishop of Manila. I continued watching him from afar when Pope Francis made him pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization at the Vatican.
I know, based on experience, that if there is any interview question that could make him walk away as fast as he could, that would be about papal succession.
I first asked him about it in Tagaytay City in March 2014, when veteran Vatican analyst John L. Allen Jr. was the keynote speaker at the 50th anniversary of the Divine Word Seminary.
Allen considered Tagle the “Asian Francis” for sharing the late Pope’s characteristics, such as having worked in “pastoral trenches, not sitting behind the desk,” and keeping a “missionary vision” for the Catholic Church.
Allen said Tagle “might get serious consideration” as pope “in some future scenario.”
Tagle, when asked about Allen’s comments, told me in jest, “That’s an opinion that I take as a joke.” Then he gave me a big smile and quickly left.
Vatican watchers in 2013 had considered Tagle a papabile — a papal contender — due to the reasons cited by Allen. Tagle, however, had two major handicaps back then: first, he was too young; second, he had little experience at the Vatican.
Twelve years have passed since the 2013 conclave.
Tagle stayed on the radar of Vatican watchers, and more and more journalists have wanted to ask Tagle about the possibility that he would succeed Francis — especially when the late pontiff got sick. More and more, as well, Tagle has learned to avoid such questions about a future conclave.
I, as a journalist, knew this boundary. He also avoided questions that put him at loggerheads with the Duterte government. (He has been criticized for not speaking out against the Duterte drug war — an issue we can flesh out later in Pope Watch.)
Once, in Manila, I approached Tagle to greet him and felt he might become apprehensive. “Cardinal, wala akong armas ha (Cardinal, I don’t have weapons)!” I joked, referring to the fact I was not holding any recording device and just wanted to chat. He replied, laughing, “Ikaw, walang armas (You have no weapon)?!”
His message was clear: focus not on me but the Church’s mission.
Tagle, in this way, has stayed true to his episcopal motto: “Dominus est (It is the Lord)” — deflecting attention from himself and directing eyes to the God he serves.
Still, many Catholics — especially Filipinos — cannot help but cheer in this year’s conclave: “It is Tagle.”
Is Tagle on course to succeed Francis?
Tagle was only 55 in March 2013. This meant that if he won, he would be pope for over 30 years, assuming he would not resign and would live till his late 80s like Francis. It was said that cardinals have been wary of long pontificates after the 27 years with John Paul II.
Now, Tagle is 67 — a decade older than Karol Wojtyla when he became John Paul II at 58.
In 2013, too, he was not part of the Vatican bureaucracy. He was then the archbishop of Manila for only over a year. Before that, he was the bishop of Imus in Cavite, south of Metro Manila, for 10 years.
Now, he has four years of experience at the Vatican — first as prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and, after a restructuring of the Roman Curia, as pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization.
The Jesuit-educated Tagle has now been a bishop for 23 years and a priest for 43 years. He is one of the highest ranking cardinals at the Vatican, and certainly the most powerful in the 500 years of Catholicism in the Philippines.
The Philippines, the biggest Catholic-majority country in Asia and the third biggest in the world, is cheering one of its own — despite warnings from Filipino clergy not to treat the conclave like a “worldly spectacle.”
Have the stars aligned for the first Filipino pope? – Rappler.com
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