PAPABILE' OF THE DAYA: Contender for the papacy in the mold of Francis

NEW YORK: He never 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 asked if he could become the first Asian pope — a frequent question in recent years — he says it is impossible.

“Thinking of myself in that position, no, no, I laugh at it,” Tagle told the BBC in 2015. “I cannot even manage my life. How can I manage a worldwide community?”

By then he had already been talked about as a potential replacement for Pope Benedict XVI. Now 67, Tagle (pronounced TAG-leh) is once again on many unofficial short lists of “papabile” cardinals, or those with a good shot at succeeding Pope Francis. The most prominent candidate from Asia, his election would be an emphatic marker of the Roman Catholic Church’s shift away from Europe to Africa and Asia, where it continues to grow.

Francis was the only pope in the modern era who was born outside Europe. If Tagle ascends to the papacy, he would be the first Asian pontiff in modern times. (Several popes in antiquity were from Syria, which is technically in West Asia, though it is now considered part of the Middle East.)

At the Vatican, Tagle oversees missionary work. Widely known by his nickname “Chito,” he is often called the “Asian Francis” for his ability to connect with the poor, his call for action against climate change and his criticism of the “harsh” stance adopted by Catholic clerics toward gay people, divorced people and unwed mothers. He is popular for his humility, and his homilies have drawn the faithful to the pews and to Facebook streams.

But as leader of the church in the Philippines, he was criticised by activists and fellow priests as being timid about the scourge of clerical sex abuse. Those complaints continued as his profile in the church rose. Last month, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, an advocacy group, urged the Vatican to investigate Tagle’s conduct in relation to cases of alleged clerical abuse in the Central African Republic and New Zealand.

Separately, in 2022, Pope Francis removed the entire management team of Caritas Internationalis, the Vatican’s charitable arm, including Tagle, who served as president. An external review had found management and morale problems at Caritas’ head office.

At home, Tagle has been faulted for not adequately addressing former President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war, in which tens of thousands of people were summarily executed.

“Had Chito spoken clearly and courageously during the Duterte administration, fewer people could have died,” said the Rev. Robert Reyes, who was in seminary with Tagle.

When the Philippine legislature proposed a bill to make it easier to access contraception, Tagle called on lawmakers to reject it. But he said later that he disagreed with fellow members of the clergy who threatened several lawmakers with excommunication.

While Tagle was leader of the church in the Philippines, Duterte frequently mocked Catholicism and insulted Pope Francis.

Duterte has said he was molested by a priest when he was a child. Some priests, including David, criticised his drug war. But Tagle stayed silent. His critics often point to Cardinal Jaime Sin, who was instrumental in toppling dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

On the issue of clerical abuse, Tagle has said that survivors’ accounts “wound” him. But he has also said that survivors should seek justice through the church’s canonical process because “the victims, once exposed to the public, might also be shamed.” The church, he said, should also care for “the abuser, who is definitely lost.”

“This is a very Asian approach,” he told the Union Catholic Asian News in 2013, “and that approach leads to healing.”

“The sad thing is that Cardinal Tagle is very much out of touch with the realities facing the sexual abuse of children by priests and brothers,” said the Rev. Shay Cullen, an Irish priest working in the Philippines. He said the cardinal had told him the church was more concerned about matters like divorce.

Tagle’s approach has contributed to a culture of impunity in the church in the Philippines, according to a watchdog group, BishopAccountability.org.

Tagle has acknowledged being criticised for “not being strong, that I don’t condemn enough,” but he said he took heart from Francis’ example, according to a 2015 interview with Crux, a publication specialising in the Catholic Church. “Who am I to judge?” he said, repeating Francis’ position on gay priests.