PROSPECT HEIGHTS — In June 2022, Filipino Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle made a daytime visit to the Elmhurst Hospital Center, encouraging staff to persist through the hardship of the COVID-19 pandemic and blessing patients. 

“Please use your talents, your competence, everything, but also most of all, please come for the sake of their families as a brother, sister, as a fellow human being,” Cardinal Tagle told the hospital’s administration and staff. “They sense that, and that is a source of big joy and consolidation for them.”

Later that day, Joann Gull, the hospital’s chief nursing officer, told The Tablet that the staff felt blessed by his visit, noting that “for staff morale it’s great.” 

“We have suffered a lot during this time, so it’s like sunlight coming to us,” Gull added. 

At the time of the visit, the world was still in the throes of Pope Francis’ pontificate, and no one was really discussing who would be his successor. Now, following Pope Francis’ death, the world is fixated on who will next occupy the chair of St. Peter and Cardinal Tagle’s name is at the forefront of possible candidate lists from Vatican watchers and experts, as well as hopeful Filipinos worldwide.

The kind, down-to-earth, and attentive spirit that Elmhurst hospital workers experienced that day in 2022 is what has also led Filipino Catholics in the Diocese of Brooklyn to pray that when the white smoke emerges from the Sistine Chapel, it will be Cardinal Tagle who walks out as Pope Francis’ successor. 

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 “It would be great,” Sister Doreen Bermoy, the director of faith formation and a pastoral assistant at Holy Family-St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Brooklyn, told The Tablet. “Cardinal Tagle is like Pope Francis in many ways. He’s always been very down to earth. … Really practicing the virtue of poverty, and he has humility and simplicity.”  

“He is for the poor. He’s really, really down to earth,” she said. “As a priest, and as a servant, he is more involved among the people, especially the poorest of the poor.” 

Father Patrick Longalong, pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Queens Village, said that ever since Pope Francis’ death, parishioners have frequently approached him with excitement about the possibility of Cardinal Tagle’s election. 

“Almost every day since Pope Francis has passed, people have come up to me speaking about Cardinal Tagle as the next pope,” Father Longalong, who leads the diocese’s Filipino Apostolate, said. “They just have such high regard and respect for him and his capabilities, and they like the way that he’s just down to earth and just very compassionate in the way that he speaks.” 

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Cardinal Tagle, 67, was born in Manila and ordained a priest in 1982. He is well-traveled, having been so even before he was ordained a bishop by St. Pope John Paul II in 2001. He studied at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., was on the editorial committee of the Institute for Religious Sciences of Bologna, and participated as an expert in the Special Assembly for Asia of the Synod of Bishops in 1996. 

In 2001, he was named Bishop of Imus in the Philippines. He was then appointed to lead the Archdiocese of Manila in 2011 and named a cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012. He was viewed as a contender for the papacy a year later.  

Pope Francis then named Cardinal Tagle president of Caritas Internationalis in 2015, until removing him and his executive team from the organization in May 2023 after an outside investigation found “real deficiencies” in the management of the global charity. 

Cardinal Tagle is currently the Pro-Prefect of the Section for the First Evangelization and New Particular Churches of the Dicastery for Evangelization, and the Grand Chancellor of the Pontifical Urbaniana University. Pope Francis also appointed him special envoy for last year’s National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis. 

Detractors of a potential Cardinal Tagle papacy point to his still relatively young age (in papal terms) as a roadblock, as well as the Caritas situation. Another factor is that he is viewed as a candidate who would largely be a continuation of Pope Francis, and it is unclear whether, or to what extent, the cardinals are seeking change. 

Father Longalong, however, explained why he thinks Cardinal Tagle’s Caritas experience is a plus. 

“I believe that because Cardinal Tagle was the head of Caritas International, he would have a greater understanding of the needs of many different people in different cultures and different countries,” Father Longalong said. “He has awareness of poverty, the dignity of people, how people are being treated, and the challenges that they might be going through in different areas of the world.” 

Father Longalong also highlighted that Cardinal Tagle would be a good bridge between the Western and Eastern worlds with his experience in the United States and elsewhere. 

“I think that this is why I’m confident that he would be a good candidate because he sees the Church for what it is — an international, global community with a very intricate dynamic of needs and responsibilities,” he said. 

Father Longalong also noted that his being from the Philippines gives him a unique perspective on migration and why people leave their homes, climate change and the impacts it has, and an ability to navigate interfaith relations. 

Zenaida Cancino, a parishioner at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Queens Village, said she is hopeful Cardinal Tagle will be elected pope because of his ability to reach young people around the world. 

“He would probably be able to relate to them on a deeper, spiritual level, and connect with them and maybe plant the seed of our Catholic faith one person at a time,” Cancino said. “He is the best person that I know who could probably unite the faith of the world. He has that charisma and is relatable on a personal level.”

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Father Longalong said he has met Cardinal Tagle a few times at events run by the National Association of Filipino Priests — USA. He described Cardinal Tagle in their interactions as the same as his public persona — down-to-earth, encouraging, and attentive. 

Father Longalong also noted that Filipino Catholics aren’t just hopeful for any Filipino pope, but specifically for the election of Cardinal Tagle. 

“Would it be significant to have a Filipino pope? Yes, but it’s not just a Filipino pope,” he explained. “If it’s a Filipino pope other than Cardinal Tagle, I would say the implications would be different because we know Cardinal Tagle and the ministry, and with the responsibility that was given to him, we can assess that he is qualified and has a lot of awareness and experience.” 

The sentiment was consistent throughout all of The Tablet’s conversations on the topic. Many Filipino Catholics in the diocese are not only hopeful for a Filipino pope, but specifically for a Cardinal Tagle papacy. 

Case in point, when asked about the prospect of a Filipino pope, Michael and Divina Pasion, parishioners at St. Michael’s Church in Flushing, said via email that “the possibility of having him as our next pope is already giving us a new light of spirit.”