ROME: Cardinal Cristobal Lopez Romero, the Spanish-born archbishop of Rabat, admits he is a little anxious ahead of his first conclave, although also curious.
The 72-year-old is among 133 cardinals from around the world who will vote for a successor to Pope Francis starting May 7.
“I haven’t decided anything,” he told AFP when asked whom he would vote for as the leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
“We believe in the Holy Spirit and we will see what it shows us and where we have to go.”
“It doesn’t necessarily have to be a Francis mark II, a Francis impersonator,” said Lopez, who the Argentine pontiff appointed as a cardinal in 2019.
“I am happy for him to be a good impersonator of Christ, that he is a good Christian, a good person and pays attention to what happens in the world.”
Born in Spain, Lopez has been the archbishop of the Moroccan capital Rabat since 2017.
There, he claims to have experienced a “conversion” — not to Islam, the overwhelming majority religion in the North African country, but in his approach to his work.
“I hear confession barely once every six months,” Lopez said. Christians make up less than one percent of Morocco’s population of 38 million people.
“That helped me to realize that I wasn’t there to serve the Church but rather, as the Church, to serve the world — in this case the Muslim world.”
Lopez has been taking part in the daily cardinal meetings, known as “general congregations,” in which those present discuss the priorities for the new pope and future direction of the 2,000-year-old Church.
“We are listening to people who we have never listened to before... and that guides you,” said Lopez, who is a Paraguayan citizen, having lived there for almost two decades.
The cardinals taking part in the conclave — those aged under 80 and able to attend — are staying in the relatively modest Casa Santa Marta on the Vatican’s grounds where Francis lived during his papacy.
They are, however, sworn to lifelong secrecy about what happens inside the Sistine Chapel during the conclave.
Smartphones are banned, the room will be swept for listening devices and cardinals are barred from reading newspapers, listening to the radio or watching television.
“I’m not worried, but I am curious,” said Lopez. “A little apprehensive because I know the responsibility that this entails, but calm because I believe in the Holy Spirit.”
In fact, Lopez even feels “a certain happiness” about the whole process — but hopes it will not last more than “two or three days.”
There are up to four votes a day until at least two-thirds of the cardinals agree on a single candidate.
Two days were needed to elect Francis and his predecessor Benedict XVI, but the longest ever conclave lasted three years.
“It’s already many days that I have been out of Morocco and I’m eager and need” to return, said Lopez.
Like Francis, Lopez wants a missionary Church pushing out especially into areas where Catholicism has few adherents, such as Morocco.
“Thanks to Pope Francis this has become much clearer, that the Church is universal, Catholic, that there are no geographic borders that limit us,” he said.
And Lopez has not ruled out the next pope hailing from outside the traditional Catholic heartlands.
“After 50 years of a Polish pope, a German pope and an Argentine pope, why not think about a pope from Myanmar, East Timor or Australia, or North America, or Africa. It’s all open,” he said.
However, he is ruling himself out of the running.
“It’s as if I said (Lionel) Messi is going to retire and I’m going to replace” the Argentine football legend, he joked.
Moroccan-based cardinal says Church does not need Francis ‘impersonator’
https://arab.news/65amv
Moroccan-based cardinal says Church does not need Francis ‘impersonator’
- “It doesn’t necessarily have to be a Francis mark II, a Francis impersonator,” said Lopez
- Born in Spain, Lopez has been the archbishop of the Moroccan capital Rabat since 2017
Syrian army pushes into Aleppo district after Kurdish groups reject withdrawal
- Two Syrian security officials told Reuters the ceasefire efforts had failed and that the army would seize the neighborhood by force
ALEPPO, Syria: The Syrian army said it would push into the last Kurdish-held district of Aleppo city on Friday after Kurdish groups there rejected a government demand for their fighters to withdraw under a ceasefire deal.
The violence in Aleppo has brought into focus one of the main faultlines in Syria as the country tries to rebuild after a devastating war, with Kurdish forces resisting efforts by President Ahmed Al-Sharaa’s Islamist-led government to bring their fighters under centralized authority.
At least nine civilians have been killed and more than 140,000 have fled their homes in Aleppo, where Kurdish forces are trying to cling on to several neighborhoods they have run since the early days of the war, which began in 2011.
HIGHLIGHTS
• Standoff pits government against Kurdish forces
• Sharaa says Kurds are ‘fundamental’ part of Syria
• More than 140,000 have fled homes due to unrest
• Turkish, Syrian foreign ministers discuss Aleppo by phone
ِA ceasefire was announced by the defense ministry overnight, demanding the withdrawal of Kurdish forces to the Kurdish-held northeast. That would effectively end Kurdish control over the pockets of Aleppo that Kurdish forces have held.
CEASEFIRE ‘FAILED,’ SECURITY OFFICIALS SAY
But in a statement, Kurdish councils that run Aleppo’s Sheikh Maksoud and Ashrafiyah districts said calls to leave were “a call to surrender” and that Kurdish forces would instead “defend their neighborhoods,” accusing government forces of intensive shelling.
Hours later, the Syrian army said that the deadline for Kurdish fighters to withdraw had expired, and that it would begin a military operation to clear the last Kurdish-held neighborhood of Sheikh Maksoud.
Two Syrian security officials told Reuters the ceasefire efforts had failed and that the army would seize the neighborhood by force.
The Syrian defense ministry had earlier carried out strikes on parts of Sheikh Maksoud that it said were being used by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to launch attacks on the “people of Aleppo.” It said on Friday that SDF strikes had killed three army soldiers.
Kurdish security forces in Aleppo said some of the strikes hit a hospital, calling it a war crime. The defense ministry disputed that, saying the structure was a large arms depot and that it had been destroyed in the resumption of strikes on Friday.
It posted an aerial video that it said showed the location after the strikes, and said secondary explosions were visible, proving it was a weapons cache.
Reuters could not immediately verify the claim.
The SDF is a powerful Kurdish-led security force that controls northeastern Syria. It says it withdrew its fighters from Aleppo last year, leaving Kurdish neighborhoods in the hands of the Kurdish Asayish police.
Under an agreement with Damascus last March the SDF was due to integrate with the defense ministry by the end of 2025, but there has been little progress.
FRANCE, US SEEK DE-ESCALATION
France’s foreign ministry said it was working with the United States to de-escalate.
A ministry statement said President Emmanuel Macron had urged Sharaa on Thursday “to exercise restraint and reiterated France’s commitment to a united Syria where all segments of Syrian society are represented and protected.”
A Western diplomat told Reuters that mediation efforts were focused on calming the situation and producing a deal that would see Kurdish forces leave Aleppo and provide security guarantees for Kurds who remained.
The diplomat said US envoy Tom Barrack was en route to Damascus. A spokesperson for Barrack declined to comment. Washington has been closely involved in efforts to promote integration between the SDF — which has long enjoyed US military support — and Damascus, with which the United States has developed close ties under President Donald Trump.
The ceasefire declared by the government overnight said Kurdish forces should withdraw by 9 a.m. (0600 GMT) on Friday, but no one withdrew overnight, Syrian security sources said.
Barrack had welcomed what he called a “temporary ceasefire” and said Washington was working intensively to extend it beyond the 9 a.m. deadline. “We are hopeful this weekend will bring a more enduring calm and deeper dialogue,” he wrote on X.
TURKISH WARNING
Turkiye views the SDF as a terrorist organization linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party and has warned of military action if it does not honor the integration agreement.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, speaking on Thursday, expressed hope that the situation in Aleppo would be normalized “through the withdrawal of SDF elements.”
Though Sharaa, a former Al-Qaeda commander who belongs to the Sunni Muslim majority, has repeatedly vowed to protect minorities, bouts of violence in which government-aligned fighters have killed hundreds of Alawites and Druze have spread alarm in minority communities over the last year.
The Kurdish councils in Aleppo said Damascus could not be trusted “with our security and our neighborhoods,” and that attacks on the areas aimed to bring about displacement.
Sharaa, in a phone call with Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani on Friday, affirmed that the Kurds were “a fundamental part of the Syrian national fabric,” the Syrian presidency said.
Neither the government nor the Kurdish forces have announced a toll of casualties among their fighters from the recent clashes.
