{"id":298127,"date":"2025-05-05T14:04:04","date_gmt":"2025-05-05T14:04:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/05\/in-the-battle-for-next-pope-cardinal-erdo-emerges-as-a-conservative-favorite\/"},"modified":"2025-05-05T14:04:04","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T14:04:04","slug":"in-the-battle-for-next-pope-cardinal-erdo-emerges-as-a-conservative-favorite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/05\/in-the-battle-for-next-pope-cardinal-erdo-emerges-as-a-conservative-favorite\/","title":{"rendered":"In the Battle for Next Pope, Cardinal Erd\u00f6 Emerges as a Conservative Favorite"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/05\/04\/multimedia\/00int-pope-profile-erdo-zwgl\/00int-pope-profile-erdo-zwgl-facebookJumbo.jpg?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"In the Battle for Next Pope, Cardinal Erd\u00f6 Emerges as a Conservative Favorite\" title=\"In the Battle for Next Pope, Cardinal Erd\u00f6 Emerges as a Conservative Favorite\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">When more than a million refugees and economic migrants poured into Europe a decade ago, Pope Francis urged compassion and, in a display of empathy and support, washed the feet of 12 asylum seekers at an Italian reception center.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Cardinal Peter Erdo, the Hungarian archbishop considered a contender to succeed Francis, took a different approach: Citing legal obstacles, he ordered church doors in Hungary closed to migrants, saying that \u201cwe would become human smugglers if we took in refugees.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He reversed his position after an audience with Francis, and he never embraced the inflammatory messaging on migrants of Hungary\u2019s populist prime minister, Viktor Orban.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But the episode appalled liberals and pleased conservatives wary of the pope\u2019s welcoming ways. And it helped establish Cardinal Erdo, the archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest, as a standard-bearer for forces within the Roman Catholic Church that want to reverse what they see as Francis\u2019 overemphasis on emotional gestures at the expense of rules and doctrine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Multilingual and an authority on canon law, Cardinal Erdo has written extensively on arcane aspects of the church\u2019s legal system and devoted much of his career to scholarship. Apart from a two-year stint as a parish priest after his ordination in 1975, he has had little direct experience dealing with the day-to-day problems of churchgoers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">That could work against him as the church faces the challenge of reversing a steady drift toward secularism across Europe.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cHe is a lawyer, not a pastor,\u201d said Istvan Gegeny, the president of the <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/szemlelek.net\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Szemlelek Foundation,<\/a> a Hungarian group that runs a Catholic news portal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIntellectually, he is a genius who can think about five different things at the same time,\u201d he said, \u201cbut he has never been close to people. He relates to them in a formal way, not emotionally.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Cardinal Erdo has also developed ties to many of the cardinals who will choose the next pope. He is a familiar figure among Catholic leaders in the West, who constitute a powerful, though divided, voting bloc in the conclave, having served from 2006 to 2016 as president of the Council of the Bishops\u2019 Conferences of Europe. He has also built bridges with Catholic leaders in Latin America and Africa.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Like Pope John Paul II of Poland, who became the first pontiff from Eastern Europe in 1978, Cardinal Erdo, 72, entered the priesthood during communist rule of his home country. It was a time of forced compromises that left a deep mark on his outlook.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Some conservatives support Cardinal Erdo in the belief he would return the church to the time of John Paul and his successor, Pope Benedict XVI, a theologian of deep scholarship and sometime dogmatic views, and put an end to Francis\u2019 progressive ideas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But Hungarians who have worked with him say he is less doctrinaire than some fans believe. \u201cHe is a liberal conservative,\u201d said Tibor Gorfol, the editor of Vigilia<em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\">, <\/em>the Hungarian church\u2019s official journal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cHe is not a real hard-liner\u201d and \u201cnever directly criticized Pope Francis,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Cardinal Erdo supported the reforms of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, which sought to modernize the language used by the church in services, among other changes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-4\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But he has spoken out against allowing divorced Catholics to receive communion and against priests blessing gay couples. In a 2019 interview with Robert Moynihan, the editor in chief of Inside the Vatican magazine, Cardinal Erdo spoke of a need to \u201cguard the flame\u201d of traditional Christian faith in an increasingly secular world.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In Hungary, however, Cardinal Erdo has had no success in slowing a rising secular tide.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Appointed archbishop in 2002 by John Paul, Cardinal Erdo was in charge during a decline in the number of Hungarians who declare themselves Roman Catholics. Between 2011 and 2022, according to official census results, the number fell by more than a million to 2.6 million. That jolted the Hungarian church and Mr. Orban, who trumpets Hungary as a bastion of Christian values.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Cardinal Erdo has generally avoided intervening in Hungary\u2019s polarized politics but stirred outrage in 2023 by attending a picnic held by senior figures in the governing Fidesz party. He also dismayed liberal-minded Hungarian Catholics by failing to defend Francis against a campaign of abuse by Fidesz during Europe\u2019s migration crisis.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Peter Marki-Zay, a churchgoing Catholic mayor who led a failed opposition campaign against Mr. Orban in a 2022 election, described Cardinal Erdo as a \u201ctypical communist era bishop in Hungary\u201d who \u201cwon\u2019t take a stand on anything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Hungarian Catholics who have worked with him say that silence reflected his cautious personality and a desire to avoid antagonizing a government that has lavished funding on the church.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-5\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Cardinal Erdo also initially stayed quiet in response to allegations of sexual abuse against a Catholic priest made by a man who said in 2003 that he had been molested as a child. Cardinal Erdo later suspended the priest.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cSilence is unfortunately the main strategy of the Hungarian Catholic Church\u201d under Cardinal Erdo, said Mr. Gorfol, the editor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A spokesman for Cardinal Erdo did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Mate Halmos in Budapest contributed reporting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/05\/05\/world\/europe\/cardinal-erdo-hungary-conservative-pope-candidate.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When more than a million refugees and economic migrants poured into Europe a decade ago, Pope Francis urged compassion and, in a display of empathy and support, washed the feet of 12 asylum seekers at an Italian reception center. Cardinal Peter Erdo, the Hungarian archbishop considered a contender to succeed Francis, took a different approach: [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/05\/04\/multimedia\/00int-pope-profile-erdo-zwgl\/00int-pope-profile-erdo-zwgl-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3601,149190,164764,178219,9450,15890,231325,10893,174936,18714,13505,24583,13327,40147,129664,164769],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298127"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298127"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":298129,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298127\/revisions\/298129"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}