Francis Opened Discussions to Those Outside the Church Hierarchy. This Cardinal Would, Too

Only about half a million people live in Malta, the tiny set of islands in the Mediterranean that make up one of Europe’s smallest countries.

Yet a Maltese citizen could soon be elected pope.

Cardinal Mario Grech, 68, the former bishop of a Maltese island, Gozo, has emerged as a candidate for pope because of his role as secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, a Vatican body mandated by canon law to consider “questions pertaining to the activity of the Church in the world.”

Pope Francis upended the synod’s role by promoting a Synod on Synodality, a multiyear meeting for church leaders and lay people, including women, on how to work together. Francis saw that process as critical, explaining it as “journeying together.”

Cardinal Grech’s role in stewarding these efforts to open up the church stand in contrast to some of his own history. While he was bishop of Gozo, from 2005 to 2020, he held conservative stances on several issues, including homosexuality and the legalization of divorce, which he opposed when Malta held a referendum in 2011.

He changed his tone under Francis, who made him a cardinal in 2020, and is seen as someone who would bring continuity to the papacy.

The synod began in 2021 with discussions among local churches around the world on issues they felt most pressing, a rare opening for all Catholics to help chart the church’s future.

If Cardinal Grech became pope, those discussions would undoubtedly go on. Some critics of the process, including traditionalists who defend an all-male clerical hierarchy, fear it could dilute the authority of the pope and bishops. Others have questioned how representative the synod has actually has been of Catholics, with only a tiny percentage of the nearly 1.4 billion worldwide having participated in meetings.

But synod supporters say it is the only way the church can stay relevant.

The synod’s future and implementation “will be crucial for the Catholic Church,” which must become “more participatory and inclusive,” said Helena Helena Jeppesen-Spuhler, who works for a Swiss Catholic relief agency and was a synod participant.

Failure to enact real change, she said, could be lethal for the church, at least in Central Europe. “If there are no changes, it will be really challenging, and I think the cardinals are aware of this,” she said.

As secretary general of the synod, Cardinal Grech emerged as a key figure in that process. There are 133 cardinals who can vote at the synod, and while those cardinals do not agree on many church issues, they may find consensus on Cardinal Grech’s leadership skills and his support of a more participatory church when it comes to its governance.

About 60 of those cardinals were present during at least one of the synod’s monthlong discussions in 2023 and 2024, meaning that in a college where many cardinals don’t know each other because they are geographically distant, his role in the synod has made him a familiar face to many.

Cardinal Grech has also taken up global causes that were close to Francis. Malta is a key point of entry in the Mediterranean for migrants arriving from Africa, and Cardinal Grech has called on Europe to open its doors, not close them. When the war broke out in Ukraine in 2022, he raised alarms that fleeing Ukrainian women and children were at risk of being exploited by human traffickers.

Like other senior church leaders over the last 20 years, Cardinal Grech has been accused by some of not doing enough to reckon with sexual abuse that took place in his diocese. He is one of the cardinals singled out on the website Conclave Watch, which scrutinizes how some cardinals handled abuse cases.

As bishop he began several initiatives to confront abuse, including a commission for protecting children and vulnerable adults. But his critics say that he could have done more in specific cases.

Some of the allegations in Malta center on Lourdes Home, an orphanage run by the Dominican Sisters of Malta on Gozo. The church commissioned an inquiry into the orphanage, which closed in 2008 and it apologized that year. Pope Benedict XVI met privately with some survivors in 2010.

Lara Dimitrijevic, a lawyer who represents two survivors in a constitutional case against the state currently being heard in Maltese court, said the church should have done more for victims, including offering psychological counseling.

“There has been such severe trauma that these mothers in their 50s are still suffering today,” she said, calling the abuse “vile.”

One of her clients in the lawsuit, Carmen Muscat, 52, said she was not satisfied with the role played by Cardinal Grech, and wanted compensation. “We didn’t get justice and it’s not fair,” she said. Cardinal Grech did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Matthew Mpoke Bigg contributed reporting.