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Filipino Cardinal, The ‘Asian Francis’, Is Papal Contender

Published

2 months ago

April 30, 2025

Editor

Asia’s front-runner for the papacy, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of the Philippines is a charismatic moderate often dubbed the “Asian Francis”.

Tagle, 67, who shares with Pope Francis a history of advocating for the poor, migrants and other marginalised people, is known for his missionary spirit and pastoral focus.

Wearing glasses with a youthful air and ready smile, the cardinal nicknamed “Chito” is a popular figure among the fervently religious country’s more than 90 million Catholics.

Born into a working-class family near Manila, Tagle was ordained as a priest in 1982 and became archbishop of the nation’s capital in 2011, a politically influential post in one of the largest dioceses in Asia, where Catholicism is growing.

He was made cardinal by former pope Benedict XVI in 2012.

A fluent English speaker, Tagle has been mentioned as a possible papal contender since the last conclave in 2013, when Francis was elected, and his name is on everybody’s lips this time around.

Underscoring the close ties between the late Argentine pontiff and Asia’s most prominent bishop, Tagle was appointed in 2019 head of a key Vatican department, the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples.

After Francis reformed the department, he named Tagle “pro-prefect” in 2022, leading the section for “First Evangelisation and New Particular Churches”, with responsibility over new dioceses.

– ‘Trust God’s knowledge’ –

As a bishop, Tagle was known for chatting with the faithful after mass and even inviting beggars to dine with him at his residence.

The adjustment to life in Rome and the formalities of the Vatican was not easy — he told theology graduates soon after arriving in 2020 that he “makes the Italians suffer” when he speaks their language.

He also once forgot to wear his clerical collar to a meeting.

An eloquent speaker with a soothing voice, Tagle giggles at his own jokes and injects self-deprecating humour into his homilies.

But he is also known for being outspoken.

As archbishop of Manila, Tagle criticised the bloody war on drugs waged by Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippines’ president at the time.

“We cannot allow the destruction of lives to become normal. We cannot govern the nation by killing,” Tagle said in a pastoral letter in 2017.

Tagle has called for a humbler Church more open to the concerns of its members, and at a 2019 Vatican summit on fighting child sex abuse he pointed the finger at the Church’s top ranks.

“Wounds have been inflicted by us bishops on victims and in fact the entire body of Christ,” he told the delegation.

“Our lack of response to the suffering of victims, and yes even to the point of rejecting them and covering up the scandal to protect perpetrators and the institution, has injured our people, leaving a deep wound in our relationship with those we are sent to serve,” Tagle said.

However, he has been accused of failing to tackle the issue sufficiently in the Philippines.

Questions have also been raised over what he knew about the employment in the Central African Republic of a Belgian priest, Luk Delft, by the Vatican’s Caritas Internationalis charity.

Delft had previously been convicted of child sexual abuse and banned from contact with children for 10 years.

Tagle served as president of Caritas Internationalis, the world’s second-largest charitable association, from 2015 until 2022.

In 2022, Tagle and the rest of the leadership team were removed by Francis after a Vatican-led audit found “deficiencies” in management and procedures.

In June 2023, the pope appointed Tagle as his special envoy to the National Eucharistic Congress of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

He carried out a similar role for the pontiff at the General Conference of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC) in Bangkok in October 2022.

The cardinal has said he never saw himself as a high-ranking man of the cloth.

“If I were God, I would not choose me to be a bishop or a cardinal,” he said in a 2018 interview.

“But since I’m not God, God sees something in me probably that I don’t see in myself and I just have to trust God’s knowledge of me.”

Related Topics:Filipino Cardinal Is Papal Contender The ‘Asian Francis’

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US Says Strikes ‘Devastated’ Iran’s Nuclear Program

Published

1 hour ago

June 22, 2025

Editor

Unprecedented US strikes have wrecked Iran’s nuclear program, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Sunday as Washington sought to assess what remained of the three targeted sites.

The surprise strikes threaten to deepen conflict in the Middle East after Israel launched a bombing campaign against Iran, with Tehran vowing to retaliate against US involvement.

But the United States said President Donald Trump wanted peace and urged Iran to end the conflict after strikes on a key underground uranium enrichment site at Fordo, along with nuclear facilities in Isfahan and Natanz.

“We devastated the Iranian nuclear program,” Hegseth told a Pentagon press briefing, adding that the operation “did not target Iranian troops or the Iranian people.”

Trump “seeks peace, and Iran should take that path”, Hegseth said. “This mission was not, and has not been, about regime change.”

Standing beside Hegseth, top US general Dan Caine said that “it would be way too early for me to comment on what may or may not still be there.”

“Initial battle damage assessments indicate that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction,” he told reporters.

– Protests in Tehran –

People gathered in the center of Tehran to protest against US and Israeli attacks, waving flags and chanting slogans, state TV showed.

Trump claimed total success for the operation in an address to the nation hours after the attack, and Vice President JD Vance followed up on Sunday morning.

“We know that we set the Iranian nuclear program back substantially last night, whether it’s years or beyond,” he told ABC.

“We’re not at war with Iran — we’re at war with Iran’s nuclear program,” he added. “The president took decisive action to destroy that program last night.”

In Tehran, AFP journalists said the roar of aircraft flying over the city was heard repeatedly for the first time since Israel’s initial attacks.

The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency said it had not detected any increase in radiation levels at the nuclear sites and Tehran said Sunday there were no signs of contamination.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told reporters in Istanbul the United States and Israel had “crossed a very big red line,” asserting Iran would continue to defend itself “by all means necessary.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the US strikes, saying Trump’s decision to “target Iran’s nuclear facilities with the awesome and righteous might of the United States will change history.”

The Israeli military was also checking the results of the US raid on the deeply buried nuclear facility in Fordo, with a spokesman saying it was “too soon” to know if Iran had removed enriched uranium from the site.

The main US strike group was seven B-2 Spirit bombers flying 18 hours from the US mainland to Iran with multiple aerial refuelings, Caine said.

– Global concern –

In response to the US attack, Iran’s armed forces said they targeted multiple sites in Israel including Ben Gurion airport, the country’s main international gateway near Tel Aviv.

Israeli rescuers said at least 23 people were wounded.

In Jerusalem, Claudio Hazan, a 62-year-old software engineer, said he hoped the US intervention would hasten an end to the Iran-Israel war.

“Israel by itself would not stop… and it would take longer,” he said.

Israel said it had launched fresh strikes on western Iran and in Qom, south of Tehran. Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported four Revolutionary Guard members were killed in strikes on a military base in the city’s north.

The Israeli military said it had “struck missile launchers ready to launch toward Israeli territory, soldiers in the Iranian Armed Forces, and swiftly neutralized the launchers that launched missiles toward Israeli territory.”

Iran’s Shargh newspaper reported that a “massive explosion was heard” Sunday in Bushehr province, home to Iran’s only nuclear power plant.

Iranian news agencies also reported strikes in Yazd province.

The United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Oman, which had been mediating Iran-US nuclear talks, criticized the US move and urged de-escalation.

The European Union called on all sides “to step back,” while stressing Iran must not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.

The Iranian foreign minister said he would travel to Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday.

Following his address, Trump warned Iran against retaliation. Iran and its proxies have previously attacked US military bases in Iraq and elsewhere in the region.

Iran’s Huthi allies in Yemen on Sunday repeated their threat to resume attacks in the Red Sea if Washington joined the war, saying they were ready to target US ships and warships.

The US president had stepped up his rhetoric against Iran since Israel first struck the country on June 13, repeating his insistence it could never have nuclear weapons.

Tehran denies seeking an atomic bomb. On Saturday, President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran’s right to pursue a civilian nuclear program “cannot be taken away… by threats or war.”

Headline

US Struck Iran With B-2 Bombers, Submarine-launched Missiles – Top US General

Published

1 hour ago

June 22, 2025

Editor

Seven stealth bombers were used in the US attack against Iranian nuclear sites, which apparently saw little response by Iran’s military, top general Dan Caine said Sunday.

Describing the complex operation, dubbed “Midnight Hammer,” Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine said the “main strike package comprised of 7 B-2 Spirit bombers” flying 18 hours from the US mainland to Iran with multiple aerial refuelings.

“Iran’s fighters did not fly, and it appears that Iran’s surface to air missile systems did not see us throughout the mission. We retained the element of surprise,” Caine added.

Headline

UK ‘Was Informed Of US Strikes’ On Iran, Plans Evacuating Briton Out of Israel

Published

2 hours ago

June 22, 2025

Editor

Britain was notified in advance of the US airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear sites, though it played no part in the military action, Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds confirmed today.

“We were informed, as you might expect, by a key ally,” Reynolds told Sky News, adding, “We were not and have not been involved in these attacks.”

The strikes—launched overnight by US B2 stealth bombers and submarines—targeted Iran’s Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan nuclear facilities. President Donald Trump hailed it as “a spectacular military success,” a claim Tehran swiftly denied.

The UK government is now working to evacuate British nationals trapped in Israel, after Iran launched a wave of retaliatory missiles. Reynolds said it would take “hours, not days” to evacuate them, citing airspace closures as the main delay.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer backed the US operation, describing Tehran’s nuclear programme as “a grave threat to international security.” He noted that the US acted to “alleviate that threat,” despite previously urging Trump to avoid military escalation.

Reynolds acknowledged public anxiety about the developments and warned of a possible rise in terrorism threats at home: “It would be naïve to say that that wouldn’t potentially increase.”

Opposition figures supported the strikes. Kemi Badenoch said the US had acted “decisively against a regime that fuels global terror.” Reform UK leader Nigel Farage posted: “Iran must not be allowed to have nuclear weapons. The future of Israel depends on it.”

Iran’s Foreign Minister, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, condemned the US operation as “lawless and criminal behavior,” warning of “everlasting consequences.”