Middle East and North Africa's Catholics believe new pope will be crucial to Church's future

As cardinals meet to elect a new pontiff, Euronews spoke to senior Catholic figures from the region as they reflected on the late Pope Francis and pondered what is next for the Church.

Approaching the residence of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Egypt in the upmarket Cairo suburb of Heliopolis, a white smoke seemed to rise from the garden into the city’s haze. However, the sound of stone masonry tools emanating from behind the gate soon clarified that it was just dust coming from a saw cutting paving stones for the renovation of the residence’s expansive and well-tended gardens. Later on Wednesday, as the eyes of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics – and those of many others – were fixated on St Peter’s Square, the infamous black smoke rose from the chimney. No candidate had secured the necessary two-thirds majority. Over to round two.Back in Cairo, Monsignor Claudio Lurati, Bishop of the Apostolic Vicariate of Alexandria, which serves as the primary jurisdiction for Roman Catholics in Egypt, seemed to enjoy the process from afar. “It is totally unpredictable,” he smiles.The region that encompasses the Middle East and North Africa is home to only around 1% of the world’s Catholics, but maintains an integral role both spiritually and politically for the Church, not least as it encompasses the Holy Land. It is also home to seven different denominations of Catholics, as well as many other non-Catholic communities.Speaking to Euronews away from the Cairene heat in the shade of his residence, Monsignor Lurati postulated that this conclave could take days.“We don't see really clear parties. So this may make the process long. People might be freer to follow their conscience and what I believe the Holy Spirit will inspire them to do,” he told Euronews.“They also need some basic time to know each other,” he adds. This is the first time that many of the 133 cardinals from 70 countries at the conclave have met in person, of whom 108 were appointed by the late Pope Francis.This has led to sometimes strange scenes of perplexed cardinals being hounded by the microphones and cameras of the world media around Rome and inside Vatican City.‘Very warm’: Remembering Francis from the Middle EastThe fanfare around the election of a new pope has not eclipsed the memory of the revolutionary and, for some, controversial papacy of Pope Francis, especially in the Middle East. “I think Pope Francis’ pontificate will be fondly remembered in Islamic-Christian relations for the praxis of interreligious dialogue,” explains Father Michael O’Sullivan.Father Michael has worked across the region for decades, including as rector of Notre Dame D’Afrique, an imposing basilica jetting out from the Algerian capital into the Mediterranean, and as director of the Maison D’Abraham interfaith centre in Jerusalem.More recently, he coordinated the late pontiff’s historic visit to the UAE, helping organise a Mass garnering 180,000 worshippers. Francis co-signed the historic Abu Dhabi declaration on interfaith cooperation with Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar in Cairo — widely considered to be the highest authority in Sunni Islamic thought and jurisprudence.In an interview with Euronews from his home in Ireland, Father Michael reiterated that “relations between (the region) and the Holy Father were very warm.”However, he admitted that this “was not without some controversy”.The more conservative among the clergy questioned some elements of the Abu Dhabi agreement, Father Michael said. “There's almost a Quranic quotation in this papal declaration, which I suppose conservatives in the Catholic Church weren’t happy about.”Looking east, looking westFor Catholics in the region, the chance to elect a new pope seems to be a road to Damascus for the Church. A few hundred metres down Beirut Street, away from the Roman Catholic residence, lies the Melkite St Cyril Church. The first church to be erected in the area, when it was built in 1910, it now lies behind high walls.Two bored-looking police officers nonchalantly fiddled with their machine guns outside, a nod to the series of church bombings in the last ten years that are still lodged in Egyptian Christians’ psyche.Inside sits Father Rafic Abouna, the Church’s priest for over three decades, and the former spokesman for the Vatican in Egypt. The room was dark, only lit by dappled sunlight. “It’s the day of the conclave and they cut the electricity,” he laughs.After a brief yet animated discussion about the correct usage of church titles, Father Rafic quickly sets out to state what he hopes will be maintained from Pope Francis’ papacy and what he hopes will not.He praises the late pontiff’s dedication to protecting refugees, whose tenure oversaw the rise of extremist Islamist politics and terrorism in the region, forcing a wave of refugees – including hundreds of thousands of Christians – to flee their homes, often heading west. In Egypt, the interregnum between former President Hosni Mubarak and the incumbent Abdel Fattah El-Sisi was marred, in Father Rafic and Monsignor Lurati’s eyes, by instability and danger caused by the brief rule of the Muslim Brotherhood.“At least 100,000 Christians that I know of fled,” Rafic claims, adding that they were largely from the “elites” and were now “returning” to what they see as a more stable nation.The Melkite priest lamented Western countries’ increasingly hostile policies toward migrants, and singled out US vice president and Catholic convert JD Vance’s recent visit with Pope Francis, a fierce and outspoken critic of the US administration, whose immigration policies he described as “an ugly thing … a disgrace”.“I don’t think JD is a good representative for Christianity,” he tells Euronews, adding that he thought the pope looked very unimpressed with the visit. The pope died a day later.However, Vance wasn’t the only senior US politician in his sights. “Biden was just as bad,” he exclaims. “Any Catholic who can accept abortion is not a real Catholic,” he exclaimed.This points to a wider sticking point for Father Rafic and many other Christians in the region. Some of the faithful believe that Christians in the Middle East and North Africa tend to be more conservative compared to what the Church now extols as its values, especially during Pope Francis’ reign. Meanwhile, others would prefer a more progressive pontiff, who would continue what they say is much-needed reform that Pope Francis took on.Father Rafic hits back at any “political” description of the church. “I would not use the terms liberal or conservative. It’s a question of moral discipline”.However, he suggests that “two forces influenced Pope Francis,” pressuring him into a more integrated social policy on issues of gender and sexual identity, namely the increasingly liberal German Catholic Church and former Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby.“They were very good friends, he was always in Rome,” Rafic says of the latter. “Insiders know he was important in Pope Francis’ decision to bless same-sex couples”. The papal decree led to an unprecedented contestation of papal authority from dioceses worldwide, notably in the Middle East.Monsignor Lurati disagrees. “I think he did play a big role in bringing forward and speeding up a process that was already taking place. The one of making the Church really universal and international.” “It was already happening. But definitely he sped up the process.” Focusing on the incoming pope, however, Father Rafic was confident that “all of these social issues will go away.”‘Boiling point’: A region at warThe incoming pontiff will have many issues on his plate from around the world, but conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa may well dominate his duties.The conflict in Lebanon, which is home to the highest percentage of Christians in the region, remains on edge with the Hezbollah militia refusing to give up its arms and Israel continuing to strike. While Father Michael hoped that Hezbollah and Iran's “clipped wings” might help bring stability, he thought parts of the region were still at “boiling point”.In neighbouring Syria, recent months have seen violence afflict various communities. While Christians have been spared so far, Father Rafic – whose Melkite denomination is rooted in Lebanon and Syria – says many have already fled, including to his church.“We look after them, and they look after us,” he smiles.Then there is South Sudan, the world’s youngest country, whose relatively short history has been “marked by poverty and conflict,” newly appointed Bishop Christian Carlassare explained to Euronews from his diocese in the city of Bentiu.“It is not actually a poor country, because resources are abundant. But people live poorly because of so much instability and violence. Corruption is also rampant.”Some observers think understanding these conflicts could give Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, an edge in the conclave.Pizzaballa gained global attention for offering to switch places with a child hostage in Gaza in the wake of the Hamas 7 October attacks and holding a mass for the 700 remaining Christians in the Strip in December 2024.The people Euronews spoke to in the region were less sure, citing his young age – a sprightly 60 – for one.But none of it is personal, they say. For them, it was less about background or personality than the values the new pope will represent.“As we experience so much injustice and violence, we need a church leader that may keep indicating God and his gospels' values as the only way towards reconciliation and peace,” Bishop Carlassare concluded.Walking out of his unlit residence back into the fierce Egyptian sun, Father Rafic refuses to speculate on who may become the new pope.“There are always surprises with the Lord and the Holy Spirit,” he smiles, one eyebrow slightly raised.