Cardinal Maradiaga left Rome upset over resistance to Francis-era reforms; ineligible to vote, his exit won’t impact conclave.
Newsroom (07/05/2025 08:00, Gaudium Press) Cardinal Oscar Andrés Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras allegedly left Rome in a huff earlier this week after becoming frustrated with the number of “turncoats” in the college seeking to slow down the reforms made under Pope Francis. He is too old to vote, and therefore, his departure will not affect the election.
Cardinal Oscar Maradiaga, the 82-old-year Honduran cardinal who is widely credited with helping to see Francis elected in 2013, and who is also regarded as responsible for the meteoric 2014 rise of Cardinal Blase Cupich to become Archbishop of Chicago, and later a key member of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops.
After Francis’ election, Maradiaga, former president of the influential Latin American Episcopal Council, quickly became one of the pope’s closest advisers. In 2013, Francis tapped him to coordinate the Council of Cardinals, known as the C8, a group formed to assist the pope in the sweeping reform of the Roman Curia. That process culminated in the 2022 apostolic constitution Praedicate Evangelium.
The Pillar has reported that Maradiaga seemingly was urging votes toward American Cardinal Prevost. Prevost, 69, is the prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, a high-profile position that’s made him known to cardinals from around the planet, and which has put him in fairly regular contact with many of them. Prevost is regarded by some electors as having a now-desired Western approach to management and governance, without the perceived limited ecclesial vision often attributed to American bishops.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from X and The Pillar
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