Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline of Marseille, France — considered a contender to be the next pope — has been jokingly referred to for years as John XXIV. He owes the nickname to his physical resemblance to the stocky, amiable former church leader, Pope John XXIII, who was a hero to many liberal Catholics for his efforts to open the church to modernity.
Now the cardinal’s supporters hope that nickname was prescient.
“I think he would be a great pope,” said Jean-François Colosimo, a French theologian and editor of the Catholic publishing house Cerf, who has known Cardinal Aveline for more than 20 years.
He added that Cardinal Aveline is “neither a progressive nor a conservative,” but someone who “can talk, listen, and build bridges while staying extremely firm on his identity.”
Cardinal Aveline, 66, was recently elected as the head of the French bishops’ conference. He has spent a large part of his career promoting dialogue between different faiths in Marseille, a Mediterranean, cosmopolitan port city at the confluence of diverse cultures and religions that is also plagued by poverty and crime.
Among candidates, Cardinal Aveline would be a less obvious choice. Working in his favor: he mixes Francis’ openness to dialogue with deep theological knowledge. Possibly working against him: conclaves have not been warm to French candidates since the 14th century, when a French pope moved the papacy to Avignon in the south of France.
Another challenge is that Cardinal Aveline is not particularly familiar with the inner workings of the Vatican, said Isabelle de Gaulmyn, the former editor-in chief of the French Catholic newspaper La Croix. And he is not fluent in Italian, the language used in day-to-day operations at the Vatican.
“He is making progress,” with his language studies, said Xavier Manzano, the vicar general of the Archdiocese of Marseille, who accompanied Cardinal Aveline to Rome for the Conclave.
Cardinal Aveline had a good relationship with Francis; he shared his embrace of diversity, a pastoral approach that emphasizes contact with the faithful over protocol, and a similarly simple personal style. When he received the call in 2019 with the news that he had been named the Archbishop of Marseille, he was doing his laundry, two people close to him said. He also likes to drive his own car, sing and play the guitar, Father Manzano said.
During a homily that Cardinal Aveline gave for Pope Francis last week at the St. Louis of the French Church in Rome, he thanked Francis for “never giving in to the slumber of consciences, in the face of the dramas of conflicts, suffering, and injustices that continue to bloody our earth.”
In the homily, Cardinal Aveline added that Francis loved France.
Cardinal Aveline, who is of Spanish descent, was born in Algeria during France’s colonial rule but grew up in a working-class area in Marseille, where his father was a railway worker. He studied theology and philosophy, and in 1992 founded the Catholic Institute of Science and Theology of Religions in Marseille. Francis helped develop his career: he was named a bishop, then an archbishop, then a cardinal during Francis’ papacy.
In 2023, Cardinal Aveline convinced Francis to visit him in Marseille, where he organized a Mass for the pope in the city’s soccer stadium.
Unlike Francis, Cardinal Aveline has refrained from openly taking stands on contentious issues within the church such as the blessing of gay couples or giving communion to divorced people, both of which Francis allowed. Both detractors and supporters describe Cardinal Aveline as embracing “classic” positions on church doctrine.
“He has a different personality,” than Francis, said Father Manzano, adding that Cardinal Aveline “is not an impulsive man.”
Msgr. Dominique Rey, a bishop who has known the cardinal since meeting him at the seminary decades ago, said that when he clashed with the Vatican over a series of issues, largely related to his embrace of traditionalism, Cardinal Aveline “sought to mediate things.”
Still, Monsignor Rey, who resigned from his post as bishop of the Fréjus-Toulon diocese at the Vatican’s request last year, said he would like to see a pope like the conservative Cardinal Robert Sarah of Guinea. He added that Cardinal Aveline would not be the ideal person to bring the church back to a more traditional approach.
“The traditional world,” he said, “is not his cup of tea.”
Still, said Ms. de Gaulmyn, Cardinal Aveline’s open approach has consistently led him to an embrace of different styles and communities, even if they were not the closest to him.
“He is a pragmatist,” she said. “He goes beyond ideology and focuses on reality.”
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