Maltese Cardinal Grech Emerges as Potential Successor in Papal Conclave
Vatican City: Apersonable Maltese cardinal and one of the papabili (pope tips) is the prelate to whom Francis entrusted his last “creature”, the synod and the path of the synodal church. Affable, fluent in English and Italian, Cardinal Mario Grech could be a card in the line of continuity for the conclave. He is currently placed on the progressive front, the one most in tune with Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s pastoral approach, but it has not always been this way. At the beginning of his priestly journey, he could not be classified among the innovators, then the mission of making the church less top-down entrusted to him by Francis must have brought him closer to the positions of the last pontiff, giving him an excellent profile as a mediator.
According to Ansa News Agency, Grech is well known among the cardinals and is accustomed to dialogue: in recent years, for his role, he has met a plethora of cardinals and high prelates, always seeking a point of balance between open-mindedness and conservatives. He is personally in favor of welcoming LGBT people into the church, because – as he explained years ago in an interview with a local newspaper – anyone who asks for help in discovering Jesus Christ should not be hindered.
Born in Qala (on the Maltese island of Gozo) sixty-eight years ago, Grech felt his vocation to the priesthood maturing at the age of twenty: so, he first followed the philosophy course and then the theology course at the Sacred Heart seminary on the island. Ordained a priest in 1984, he was invited to Rome, where he obtained a license in “utroque iure” at the Pontifical Lateran University. Then, he also obtained a doctorate in canon law at the Pontifical University “Saint Thomas Aquinas” with the thesis “The harmonization of the religious and civil dimensions of canonical marriages in Malta”.
During his study stay in the capital, he carried out pastoral activity at the church of the Assumption of Mary, working as an expert in canon law at the vicariate and the tribunal of the Roman Rota. When he returned to his homeland, he became parish priest in the parish of Kercem, judicial vicar of the diocese, member of the metropolitan tribunal of Malta, teacher of canon law in the seminary and member of the college of consultors, the presbyteral council and other diocesan commissions. His rise in the ranks of the church began: in 2005 Benedict XVI appointed him bishop of Gozo; in 2020 by the will of Francis he became general secretary of the synod of bishops; two months later he was cardinal. Over the years he has taken a position, in line with Bergoglio, also on the issue of immigration, arguing that Europe must find a solution and that “there is a false populism in today’s society”.