Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline of Marseille, France — thought of a contender to be the following pope — has been jokingly referred to for years as John XXIV. He owes the nickname to his bodily resemblance to the stocky, amiable former church chief, Pope John XXIII, who was a hero to many liberal Catholics for his efforts to open the church to modernity.
Now the cardinal’s supporters hope that nickname was prescient.
“I feel he can be an important pope,” mentioned Jean-François Colosimo, a French theologian and editor of the Catholic publishing home Cerf, who has recognized Cardinal Aveline for greater than 20 years.
He added that Cardinal Aveline is “neither a progressive nor a conservative,” however somebody who “can speak, pay attention, and construct bridges whereas staying extraordinarily agency on his identification.”
Cardinal Aveline, 66, was not too long ago elected as the top of the French bishops’ convention. He has spent a big a part of his profession selling dialogue between totally different faiths in Marseille, a Mediterranean, cosmopolitan port metropolis on the confluence of various cultures and religions that can be suffering from poverty and crime.
Amongst candidates, Cardinal Aveline can be a much less apparent selection. Working in his favor: he mixes Francis’ openness to dialogue with deep theological information. Probably working in opposition to him: conclaves haven’t been heat to French candidates because the 14th century, when a French pope moved the papacy to Avignon within the south of France.
One other problem is that Cardinal Aveline will not be notably accustomed to the inside workings of the Vatican, mentioned Isabelle de Gaulmyn, the previous editor-in chief of the French Catholic newspaper La Croix. And he’s not fluent in Italian, the language utilized in day-to-day operations on the Vatican.
“He’s making progress,” together with his language research, mentioned Xavier Manzano, the vicar normal of the Archdiocese of Marseille, who accompanied Cardinal Aveline to Rome for the Conclave.
Cardinal Aveline had an excellent relationship with Francis; he shared his embrace of range, a pastoral method that emphasizes contact with the trustworthy over protocol, and a equally easy private fashion. When he acquired the decision in 2019 with the information that he had been named the Archbishop of Marseille, he was doing his laundry, two folks near him mentioned. He additionally likes to drive his personal automotive, sing and play the guitar, Father Manzano mentioned.
Throughout a homily that Cardinal Aveline gave for Pope Francis final week on the St. Louis of the French Church in Rome, he thanked Francis for “by no means giving in to the slumber of consciences, within the face of the dramas of conflicts, struggling, and injustices that proceed to bloody our earth.”
Within the homily, Cardinal Aveline added that Francis liked France.
Cardinal Aveline, who’s of Spanish descent, was born in Algeria throughout France’s colonial rule however grew up in a working-class space in Marseille, the place his father was a railway employee. He studied theology and philosophy, and in 1992 based the Catholic Institute of Science and Theology of Religions in Marseille. Francis helped develop his profession: he was named a bishop, then an archbishop, then a cardinal throughout Francis’ papacy.
In 2023, Cardinal Aveline satisfied Francis to go to him in Marseille, the place he organized a Mass for the pope within the metropolis’s soccer stadium.
Not like Francis, Cardinal Aveline has kept away from brazenly taking stands on contentious points throughout the church such because the blessing of homosexual {couples} or giving communion to divorced folks, each of which Francis allowed. Each detractors and supporters describe Cardinal Aveline as embracing “basic” positions on church doctrine.
“He has a special character,” than Francis, mentioned Father Manzano, including that Cardinal Aveline “will not be an impulsive man.”
Msgr. Dominique Rey, a bishop who has recognized the cardinal since assembly him on the seminary many years in the past, mentioned that when he clashed with the Vatican over a collection of points, largely associated to his embrace of traditionalism, Cardinal Aveline “sought to mediate issues.”
Nonetheless, Monsignor Rey, who resigned from his publish as bishop of the Fréjus-Toulon diocese on the Vatican’s request final yr, mentioned he wish to see a pope just like the conservative Cardinal Robert Sarah of Guinea. He added that Cardinal Aveline wouldn’t be the perfect individual to deliver the church again to a extra conventional method.
“The normal world,” he mentioned, “will not be his cup of tea.”
Nonetheless, mentioned Ms. de Gaulmyn, Cardinal Aveline’s open method has persistently led him to an embrace of various types and communities, even when they weren’t the closest to him.
“He’s a pragmatist,” she mentioned. “He goes past ideology and focuses on actuality.”
