The next pope: Where the frontrunners stand on war, peace and weapons
Today, over 200 cardinals, decked in crimson robes, will gather in Rome to begin the conclave, the process of choosing the next pope.
The decision could not only shape the Church’s direction, but also its moral voice on questions of war, peace, and disarmament. Pope Francis was a courageous voice for peace. He condemned the possession of nuclear weapons as immoral and became a key ally of the campaign to ban them, backing the UN treaty on their prohibition and urging Catholic-majority countries to join.
What do the current papal contenders think? Here’s where seven of the frontrunners stand on war, disarmament, and the quest for global peace.
Pietro Parolin, Italy
Having served for more than ten years as the Vatican’s high-ranking secretary of state under Pope Francis, Parolin is tipped to be one of the strongest contenders for the papal crown. On matters of war and peace, he echoes the late pope’s outspoken tone. In 2024, Parolin began a speech at the United Nations General Assembly by expressing concern over the escalating number, and increased violence, of conflicts worldwide. He sounded the alarm over the undermining of international humanitarian law, described the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine as a “third world war in piecemeal”, and also called for a ban on the use of autonomous weapons. Recently, Parolin said that to achieve peace, “solutions must never be pursued through unilateral impositions that risk trampling on the rights of entire peoples.” Rather, he called for multilateralism, and what he described as the “diplomacy of hope” in reaching this goal.
Peter Turkson, Ghana
Appointing this Ghanaian cardinal would be a nod to the Catholic church’s expanding African base. If chosen, Turkson would also be the first African pope in 1,500 years. Turkson has been most vocal on issues of social and environmental justice, but these also overlap with his views on weapons and war — which he has described as a waste of resources that could be better spent protecting the environment and supporting human development. He has also expressed his worries about where the world is headed on the goals of nuclear disarmament. “In international relations and within the new multipolar order, a climate of fear, mistrust, and opposition prevails,” he said in 2020. “The legal framework for nonproliferation and disarmament within governments is weakening.”
Matteo Zuppi, Italy
Another Italian cardinal in the running, Zuppi is the Archbishop of Bologna, and has decades of peace-building experience under his belt. In 2023 Pope Francis made Zuppi the Vatican’s peace envoy in Ukraine, which took him on a mission to Ukraine, where he met with president Volodymyr Zelensky, and also traveled to Moscow to “seek a path to peace” (though this did not involve meetings with Russian president Vladimir Putin.) Decades before this, Zuppi was one of four negotiators credited with helping to bring about an end to the civil war in Mozambique in 1992. Most recently in March, Zuppi spoke up for multilateralism and against amassing arms, warning countries “to not let the logic of weapons prevail, to not allow the narrative of the inevitability of war to take hold.”
Luis Antonio Tagle, The Philippines
Over the past two days this former Archbishop of Manila has emerged as a clear frontrunner with the bookmakers. Compared to some of his colleagues who have shared more deliberate views on conflict and peace, Tagle has spoken in softer tones on the subject, centering the role of religion, hope, and love in fostering peace. In a visit to Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park in Japan in 2017, he commented that peace begins with “a pure heart.” As former president of Caritas Internationalis, a confederation of Catholic humanitarian relief, development and social service organisations, Tagle said in 2022 that we lose sight of the human face in war: “The war in Ukraine and conflicts in other countries of the world are generally presented as political, military conflicts but people are forgotten! ... Caritas reminds the world that war is not a military, political issue, but it is, first of all, a human issue.”
Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Seen as a leading candidate, Ambongo’s positions on conflict and war have partly been shaped by his Congolese nationality. The Archbishop of Kinshasa has criticised the absence of the international community, and the ineffectiveness of the United Nations peacekeeping forces, in stopping the evolving conflict in his homeland. In 2024, Ambongo launched a peace initiative together with other church leaders to facilitate talks with M23 rebels advancing in eastern Congo, a move that caused him to fall foul of the government. On other matters of conflict and war, Besungu may fall foul of voting cardinals for echoing some of Putin’s anti-Western views in 2023. As the National Catholic Reporter noted: “A potential pope seen as too comfortable with Putin — at a time when much of the church has stood in solidarity with Ukraine — will be a nonstarter for many cardinals.”
Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Jerusalem
The first cardinal in Jerusalem where he has lived for 35 years, this Italian is a frontrunner for pope, Vatican insiders say. Meanwhile, others believe his location makes him too sensitive a choice given the ongoing attacks on Gaza. Either way, Pizzaballa has managed to speak out on the conflict that rages around him without seeming to take sides. He has condemned Hamas, described Gaza as an “open prison”, and called for an end to the bombing in Palestine. Some of his statements have had a tinge of bravado, particularly at the start of the Israel-Palestine conflict where he offered himself up to Hamas as a substitute for Israeli children who had been taken hostage. “[Am I] ready for an exchange? Anything, if this can lead to freedom and bring those children home,” he said at the time. Some believe his promotion of interfaith dialogue, fluency in Arabic and Hebrew, and understanding of the Middle Eastern context, demonstrate leadership capabilities in a conflicted world.
Péter Erdő, Hungary
At the conservative end of the spectrum, Erdő will appeal to those who want the Vatican to depart from Pope Francis’s more liberal stance on key issues for the church. In 2015, Erdő rejected a call from Francis to support the thousands of refugees arriving in Europe. Although he later welcomed Ukrainian refugees when Russia invaded in 2022, Erdő’s initial stance was seen by critics as too closely aligned with the anti-immigrant rhetoric of Hungary’s right-wing prime minister, Viktor Orbán. The Hungarian Prime Minister “has pumped millions of dollars into Hungary's Catholic Church and its institutions,” according to the National Catholic Reporter, raising concerns about a cosy relationship between the two figures that may discourage Erdő from speaking out — especially as Orbán grows increasingly authoritarian and legislatively aligned with Putin’s Russia.