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Among candidates to be the next head of the Catholic Church, several prominent cardinals in Asia are thought to be under consideration.
Pope Francis passed away on Monday at the age of 88, concluding a 12-year papacy. A papal conclave is expected to convene at the Vatican within the next 15 to 20 days to elect his successor.
While the official appointment of a pope requires the votes of 90 out of 135 cardinals in the Vatican, prominent candidates span 71 countries, with several overseeing dioceses in Asia from Sri Lanka, South Korea, the Philippines and Myanmar. Any candidate from these countries would be the first Asian pope to sit in the Vatican.
The 76-year-old Charles Maung Bo, born in northwest Myanmar’s now-embattled Sagaing region, resided over the Lashio diocese in the country’s northern Shan state from 1986 until 2003, when he was appointed Archbishop of Yangon and later became a cardinal under the authority of Pope Francis in 2015.
Despite Catholics comprising just over 1% of Myanmar’s majority-Buddhist population, sources close to Myanmar’s Cardinal Charles Maung Bo said that the College of Cardinals may be looking at finding a candidate with a diplomatic and humanitarian-oriented approach similar to Pope Francis.
Charles Maung Bo became more prominent in 2021 following the country’s military coup when he called for a peaceful solution in the face of armed rebel movements across the country.
In an interview with Radio Free Asia in 2023, he referred to the population of Myanmar as “brothers and sisters,” calling on all sides to lay down their weapons.
“Guns beget more guns. Bullets beget more bullets. If violence is met with violence, it will only lead to more violence,” he said. “All of us, no matter which side we are on, all those who are armed, should lay down our weapons and be family.”
In Sri Lanka, another Buddhist-majority country, 77-year-old Malcolm Ranjith, who serves as the Archbishop of Colombo, the nation’s capital, is eligible for appointment.
Others have speculated that the next pope-elect may come from South Korea, where around 30% of the population is Christian, or the Philippines, a Catholic-majority country. Both have leaders in the Catholic church eligible for the Vatican.
South Korea’s 74-year-old Cardinal Lazzaro You Heung-sik may be considered, given the Catholic church’s growth in the country in the last few decades and its large financial contributions to the Vatican. He was appointed to a role within the Vatican as Dicastery for the Clergy as a prefect in 2021 and as a cardinal in 2022.
The Philippines’ Luis Antonio Tagle, 67 years old, has often been compared to Pope Francis and named by experts as a favorite of the late pope for his humanitarian and progressive social views on issues such as migration and same sex marriage, but may prove to be too young for the conclave, who typically select a candidate in his 70s.
As of 2025, there have been 266 popes recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, starting from St. Peter, considered the first pope, to Pope Francis, who became the 266th pontiff in 2013.
Historically, no pope of fully Asian descent has ever led the Catholic Church.
Discussions have been reignited around the possibility of a non-European pope – particularly from Asia – with reports suggesting that an Asian pope would carry deep symbolic and strategic significance, reflecting Catholicism’s rapid growth across the region and reinforcing the Church’s shift toward a more global identity.
As of the end of 2023, Asia was home to approximately 121 million Catholics, accounting for about 11% of the global Catholic population, which totals around 1.4 billion. This represents a growth of 0.6% from the previous year, indicating steady expansion in the region.
The Philippines and India remain the largest contributors to Asia’s Catholic population, with 93 million and 23 million Catholics respectively, together comprising over three-quarters of the region’s total.
Edited by Taejun Kang and Mike Firn.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Burmese and Kiana Duncan for RFA.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.