Only about half a million people live in Malta, the small set of islands in the Mediterranean that forms one of the smallest countries in Europe.
However, a Maltese citizen could soon be elected Pope.
Cardinal Mario Grech, 68, the former bishop of a Maltese island, joy, has become a candidate for the Pope because his role as secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, a body of the Vatican ordered by the canonical law to the bad.
Pope Francis generated the role of the Synod through the promotion of a Synodality Synod, a several -year meeting for church and laity leaders, including women, on how to work together. Francis saw that process as a critic, explaining it as “traveling together.”
The role of Cardinal Grech in the administration of these efforts to open the position of the Church in contrast to part of its own history. While he was a bishop of joy, from 2005 to 2020, the conservative positions of heroes on several issues, including homosexuality and legalization of divorce, which opposes when Malta celebrated a referendum in 2011.
He changed his tone with Francis, who made him a cardinal in 2020, and is Sene like some that would bring continuity to the papacy.
In 2021 with discussions among the local churches around the world on issues that felt more pressing, a rare opening so that all Catholics help draw the future of the Church.
If Cardinal Grech became Pope, those discussions would certainly continue. Some critics of the process, including traditionalists who defend a male clerical hierarchy, fear that the authority of the Pope and bishops can dilute. Others have questioned how the representative has really been the Synod of Catholics, with only a small percentage of almost 1.4 billion worldwide that have separated in meetings.
But Synod’s supporters say it is the only way in which the Church can remain relevant.
The future and the implementation of the Synod “will be crucial for the Catholic Church”, which must become “more partipatory and inclusive,” said Helena Helena Jeppes-Spuhler, who works for a Swiss Catholic aid agency and was a synod participant.
Not to promulgate a real change, he said, could be lethal to the Church, at least in Central Europe. “If there are no changes, it will be really challenging, and I think the cardinals are aware of this,” he said.
As general secretary of the Synod, Cardinal Grech emerged as a key figure in that process. There are 133 cardinals who can vote in the Synod, and although those cardinals do not agree on many church issues, they can find consensus on Cardinal Grech leadership skills and their support for a more participation when it comes to governance.
Around 60 of those cardinals were present at least of the discussions of a month of the Synod in 2023 and 2024, which means that in a university where many cardinals are not known, they are a geographical family in the synod that has role.
Cardinal Grech also has tasks of global causes that were close to Francis. Malta is a key entry point in the Mediterranean for migrants who arrive from Africa, and Cardinal Grech has asked Europe to open its doors, do not close them. When the war broke out in Ukraine in 2022, Hey gave alarms that Ukrainian women and children fleeing ran the risk of being exploited by people traffickers.
Like other high -level church leaders in the last 20 years, Cardinal Grech has accused that some of not doing enough to take into account the sexual abuse that took place in his diocese. It is one of the cardinals pointed out on the website Concstave Watch, which analyzes how some cardinals handled the cases of abuse.
As Bishop Heban, several initiatives to face abuse, including a commission to protect vulnerable children and adults. But his critics say he could have done more in specific cases.
Some of the accusations in Malta Center in Lourdes Home, an orphanage directed by the Dominican Malta sisters in joy. The Church commissioned an investigation into the orphanage, which closed in 2008 and apologized that year. Papa Benedict XVI with private with some survivors in 2010.
Lara Dimitrijevic, a lawyer who repeats two survivors in a constitutional case against the State that is currently heard in the Maltese court, said the Church should have more for the victims, including the offer of psychological advice.
“There has been a severe trauma bone that these 50 -year -old mothers are still suffering today,” he said, describing the “vile” abuse.
One of his clients in the demand, Carmen Muscat, 52, said he was not satisfied with the role played by Cardinal Grech, and wanted compensation. “We didn’t get justice and it’s not fair,” he said. Cardinal Grech did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
Matthew Mpoke Bigg Contributed reports.
