He by no means aspired to be a priest. After he rose to be a bishop, he implied that he suffered from impostor syndrome. And when Cardinal Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle of the Philippines is requested if he may grow to be the primary Asian pope — a frequent query in recent times — he says it’s not possible.
“Pondering of myself in that place, no, no, I giggle at it,” Cardinal Tagle informed the BBC in 2015. “I can’t even handle my life. How can I handle a worldwide group?”
By then he had already been talked about as a possible alternative for Pope Benedict XVI. Now 67, Cardinal Tagle (pronounced TAG-leh) is as soon as once more on many unofficial quick lists of “papabile” cardinals, or these with a superb shot at succeeding Pope Francis. Probably the most distinguished candidate from Asia, his election could be an emphatic marker of the Roman Catholic Church’s shift away from Europe to Africa and Asia, the place it continues to develop.
Francis was the one pope within the trendy period who was born outdoors Europe. If Cardinal Tagle ascends to the papacy, he could be the primary Asian pontiff in trendy occasions. (A number of popes in antiquity had been from Syria, which is technically in West Asia, although it’s now thought of a part of the Center East.)
On the Vatican, Cardinal Tagle oversees missionary work. Broadly identified by his nickname “Chito,” he’s typically referred to as the “Asian Francis” for his means to attach with the poor, his name for motion in opposition to local weather change and his criticism of the “harsh” stance adopted by Catholic clerics towards homosexual individuals, divorced individuals and unwed moms. He’s in style for his humility, and his homilies have drawn the devoted to the pews and to Fb streams.
However as chief of the church within the Philippines, he was criticized by activists and fellow monks as being timid in regards to the scourge of clerical intercourse abuse. These complaints continued as his profile within the church rose. Final month, the Survivors Community of these Abused by Monks, an advocacy group, urged the Vatican to research Cardinal Tagle’s conduct in relation to instances of alleged clerical abuse within the Central African Republic and New Zealand. (The group additionally sought inquiries into 5 different cardinals.)
Individually, in 2022, Pope Francis eliminated your entire administration crew of Caritas Internationalis, the Vatican’s charitable arm, together with Cardinal Tagle, who served as president. An exterior overview had discovered administration and morale issues at Caritas’s head workplace.
At residence, Cardinal Tagle has been faulted for not adequately addressing former President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug battle, through which tens of 1000’s of individuals had been summarily executed.
“Had Chito spoken clearly and courageously throughout the Duterte administration, fewer individuals may have died,” mentioned the Rev. Robert Reyes, who was in seminary with Cardinal Tagle.
On the time, the cardinal was archbishop of Manila. He referred to as for an “finish to the waste of human lives” however didn’t confront Mr. Duterte straight.
Cardinal Tagle didn’t reply to a request for an interview.
At this time, Cardinal Tagle is considered one of 5 cardinals from the Philippines. Some Vatican insiders see Cardinal Pablo Virgilio Siongco David, who has a decrease profile, as a possible pope as nicely.
When the Philippine legislature proposed a invoice to make it simpler to entry contraception, Cardinal Tagle referred to as on lawmakers to reject it. However he mentioned later that he disagreed with fellow members of the clergy who threatened a number of lawmakers with excommunication.
“He tries to influence individuals moderately than intimidate them,” mentioned the Rev. Joseph A. Komonchak, who taught Cardinal Tagle at The Catholic College of America in Washington within the Eighties.
Whereas Cardinal Tagle was chief of the church within the Philippines, Mr. Duterte incessantly mocked Catholicism and insulted Pope Francis.
Mr. Duterte has mentioned he was molested by a priest when he was a toddler. Some monks, together with Cardinal David, criticized his drug battle. However Cardinal Tagle stayed silent. His critics typically level to Cardinal Jaime Sin, who was instrumental in toppling the dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
On the difficulty of clerical abuse, Cardinal Tagle has mentioned that survivors’ accounts “wound” him. However he has additionally mentioned that survivors ought to search justice by means of the church’s canonical course of as a result of “the victims, as soon as uncovered to the general public, may additionally be shamed.” The church, he mentioned, also needs to take care of “the abuser, who is certainly misplaced.”
“It is a very Asian strategy,” he informed the Union Catholic Asian Information in 2013, “and that strategy results in therapeutic.”
“The unhappy factor is that Cardinal Tagle could be very a lot out of contact with the realities going through the sexual abuse of kids by monks and brothers,” mentioned the Rev. Shay Cullen, an Irish priest working within the Philippines. He mentioned the cardinal had informed him the church was extra involved about issues like divorce.
Cardinal Tagle’s strategy has contributed to a tradition of impunity within the church within the Philippines, based on a watchdog group, BishopAccountability.org.
Cardinal Tagle has acknowledged being criticized for “not being sturdy, that I don’t condemn sufficient,” however he mentioned he took coronary heart from Francis’s instance, based on a 2015 interview with Crux, a publication specializing within the Catholic Church. “Who am I to evaluate?” he mentioned, repeating Francis’s place on homosexual monks.
Born in Manila, Cardinal Tagle was raised within the metropolis of Imus by mother and father who labored in a financial institution. He wished to be a physician however entered seminary after attending Ateneo de Manila, a prime Jesuit college.
Ordained in 1982 on the age of 24, he later wrote his doctoral thesis on Pope Paul VI at Catholic College.
In Washington, on his personal initiative, he often visited a hospice for individuals affected by AIDS, mentioned the Rev. Peter Bernardi, a classmate.
He returned to Imus in 1992, the place he was identified to journey by bicycle or jeepney, an inexpensive mode of public transport. Within the following a long time, he was named archbishop of Manila, then a cardinal, and ultimately he moved to the Vatican.
Now he may rise to the helm of the church.
Again throughout the election of Benedict’s successor, who proved to be Francis, Cardinal Tagle wrote to Father Komonchak, asking his former trainer to “pray for me.”
“I took him to imply that he was overwhelmed by the opportunity of his being elected pope,” Father Komonchak mentioned. “Who wouldn’t be?”
Camille Elemia contributed reporting from Imus, the Philippines, and Elisabetta Povoledo and Jason Horowitz from Rome.
