Only about a half-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, who died April 21, made the most recent synod much more inclusive and participatory, and 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 2005-20, 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.
The final results of the process are still to come. When the synod ended in 2024, many questions, including whether women could be ordained deacons, were relegated to separate study groups.
In mid-March, with Francis’ approval, Grech announced the process would continue until 2028 and end with an assembly involving various levels of the church.
If 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 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 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, Grech emerged as a key figure in that process. There are 133 cardinals who can vote at the synod. About 60 of those cardinals were present during at least one of the synod’s monthlong discussions in 2023 and 2024 at the Vatican, meaning that in a College of Cardinals where many of them don’t know one another because they are geographically distant, his role has made him a familiar face to many.
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 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 past 20 years, 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 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 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.”
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One of her clients in the lawsuit, Carmen Muscat, 52, said she was not satisfied with the role played by Grech, and wanted compensation. “We didn’t get justice, and it’s not fair,” she said.
Grech did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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