ROME — As cardinals made pastoral visits to their titular churches in Rome on Sunday ahead of the 2025 papal conclave, Cardinal Wilton Gregory returned to the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Grottarossa to greet his Italian flock. He was installed there in 2021, roughly a year after being named by Pope Francis as the first African-American cardinal.
A small crowd gathered at the modest church on the Via Flamina for a Mass concelebrated by Gregory, the parish priest, and two other Americans, including Gregory’s priest-secretary Kevin Regan and the recently ordained Benjamin Bralove.
In his homily, Gregory—the 77-year-old Archbishop Emeritus of Washington—spoke of the need for prayers to bring about the successful election of a new pope, scheduled to begin on Wednesday, May 7, following the death of Pope Francis last month.
“The Office of Peter is being passed on to the one whose love must become more intense and complete, as he will face many challenges in caring for the entire flock of Christ in today’s world,” Gregory said, linking Sunday’s gospel reading on the Restoration of Peter to the papal office.
“We must all pray for him more intensely in these coming days.”
Archbishop Emeritus Wilton Gregory of Washington, the world's only African-American cardinal, at his titular church this morning in Rome for Mass ahead of #Conclave2025. pic.twitter.com/xbRCiMYsQy
— Nate Tinner-Williams (@natemup) May 4, 2025
This year’s conclave, among the most diverse on record, will feature electors from six continents and 71 countries, reflecting Pope Francis’ efforts to reshape the College of Cardinals from the ground up. More than 80% of voting cardinals were appointed by the late pontiff.
The conclave will also include—for the first time—Black electors from the Western Hemisphere. In that regard, Gregory will be joined by the Haitian cardinal Chibly Langlois, who serves as Bishop of Les Cayes. (Two previous African-descent New World cardinals, Brazil’s Lucas Moreira Neves and the Caribbean Kelvin Felix, died before ever voting in a conclave.)
On Monday and Tuesday, the more than 180 total cardinals present in Rome will complete their final pre-conclave meetings, which are not open to the public. Meanwhile, Vatican officials are making final preparations at the residential Casa Santa Marta, as well as the Sistine Chapel, where the 133 eligible electors will cast their first votes Wednesday evening, also in secret.
Gregory, who has appeared only sparingly for public events during the nine-day novemdiales papal mourning period, is not considered an obvious candidate to succeed Pope Francis.
(Nate Tinner-Williams)
The papabili (“pope-ables”) speculated by the media comprise roughly a dozen notable names from Europe, Asia, and Africa, including the Archbishop of Kinshasa, Francis’ 65-year-old cardinal appointee Fridolin Ambongo Besungu. Also believed to be in the running is a cardinal from Pope St. John Paul II, Peter Turkson of Ghana, 76, who serves as chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.
Any possible papabile will have to gain a two-thirds majority on a ballot—in this case, 89 votes. In recent conclaves, this has taken several days. (On two occasions in the 20th century, the process stretched closer to a week.)
On Sunday, Cardinal Gregory emphasized that a pope of great faith is needed, telling the Grottarossa parishioners that the conclave must consider who can rightly answer Jesus as he once spoke to Peter, the first Bishop of Rome: “Do you love me?”
“[I] ask you to pray for the electors of the conclave—especially for the one who will soon have to answer Christ’s question in the coming days,” Gregory said.
“Give him strength and courage to answer as Peter did: ‘Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you!’”
Nate Tinner-Williams is co-founder and editor of Black Catholic Messenger.
