(OSV News) -- As church leaders prepare to enter the conclave on May 7, attention has focused on the three English cardinals who'll be taking part, and how they may be assisting the choice of a new pope.
"As Englishmen, I'd say we bring a certain down-to-earth pragmatism to the discussions, which helps transcend ideological misunderstandings," said Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe, a popular preacher and former global master of the Dominican order.
"We're also privileged to live in a country which is relatively tolerant and free of prejudice. This may be helpful to the deliberations of a church which is ever more multicultural."
The Oxford-based Dominican spoke as the 135 cardinal electors concluded the "novendiali" -- the nine days of official mourning and Masses for the late pope, as well as informal discussions about choosing his successor.
He told OSV News that he and others were still grieving for a pontiff who "reached out to people right until the end." For his part Cardinal Radcliffe said that the busy chain of events had left him "exhausted."
Meanwhile, a leading English Catholic said intense media interest in the upcoming conclave reflected the "huge importance" attached to the papacy even in largely secular Britain.
"As the Victorian playwright Oscar Wilde said, there's nothing worse than being ignored -- anything that makes people think about the Catholic Church offers an opportunity for evangelization," said Joseph Shaw, chairman of the London-based Latin Mass Society.
"That we now have four English cardinals, with no Scottish or Irish colleagues to join them, is a historic first. And while they are all quite different people, those parts of the English-speaking world which aren't comfortable with American influences may well be looking to Britain instead for direction and inspiration."
England's four cardinals include Cardinal Michael Louis Fitzgerald, now 87, a member of the Society of Missionaries of Africa, or White Fathers, and former president in 2002-2006 of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. He is not eligible to vote in the conclave.
Cardinal Vincent Nichols, now 79, is one of three British cardinal electors. He has been archbishop of Westminster and president of the English and Welsh bishops' conference since 2009, after previously serving nine years as archbishop of Birmingham.
As president since 2014 of the international Santa Marta Group of police chiefs and bishops, the Liverpool-born Cardinal Nichols has led church efforts to combat slavery and trafficking, but was also accused by a British inquiry in 2020 of insufficient action to counter sexual abuse in the church.
While defending the church and its teachings at critical moments, and championing poor and marginalized groups, the cardinal has also maintained a low media profile in recent years.
The Yorkshire-born Cardinal Arthur Roche attended the seminary at Valladolid in Spain and served as bishop of Leeds from 2004 to 2012, chairing an international commission overseeing a new translation of the English Missal.
In 2021, he was named prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, becoming the highest-ranking Englishman for over a century in the Vatican Curia, from where he supervised new curbs on the Latin Mass and other reforms.
England's newest cardinal is London-born Cardinal Father Radcliffe. He was elevated in December 2024 after gaining prominence as spiritual adviser to the world Synod of Bishops on synodality in 2023-2024.
An Oxford University graduate, he ministered as a student chaplain and served as first English master of the Dominicans in 1992-2001, visiting over 100 countries, also acting as chancellor of Rome's Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, and setting up Dominican-Franciscan representation at the United Nations and a Dominican Volunteers International.
Besides writing bestselling books on Christian witness, Cardinal Radcliffe headed a Las Casas Institute, promoting social justice and human rights from Oxford's Dominican Blackfriars Hall in 2014-2016, and was one of Britain's first priests to provide pastoral care for AIDS sufferers and LGBTQ groups.
Anna Rowlands, a lay synod representative, thinks Cardinal Radcliffe will be best known to conclave participants, at least 60 of whom "experienced his spiritual guidance and input" at Rome synod sessions.
"He's unusual in being known personally to many, yet new to the conclave process and not a bishop," Rowlands, who is a professor and teaches Catholic social thought at Durham University, told OSV News.
"This could mean he's able to have important conversations, deepening trust and brokering relationships, as well as to speak with an inner freedom and conviction, and encourage some to step beyond their anxieties into a deeper embrace of the church's mission."
Shaw, the Latin Mass Society chairman, believes the English influence extends further.
Recent reports have suggested an upturn in Catholic conversions in Britain, at a time when searches for “how to become Catholic” increased by 373% across the world April 20-26, according to analysis of data from Google Trends, as reported by The Tablet.
According to an April report from Bible Society, while church attendance dropped in the Anglican Church from 41% of all churchgoers to 34% between 2018 and 2024, the number of Roman Catholic churchgoers has increased from 23% to 31%.
Besides encouraging a continuing revival, a higher English profile in the church internationally could have wider importance, Shaw thinks, in strengthening the Catholic influence on society and culture across the English-speaking world.
"Whereas the Catholic Church has traditionally been prominent in France, Spain, Germany and elsewhere, it hasn't had such a presence in English-speaking countries," Shaw told OSV News.
"Yet these countries still largely lead the world politically, culturally and economically, as well as in military power and other areas. A stronger Catholic church voice in this sphere, particularly from England rather than the United States, could prove highly significant."
Speaking to the BBC April 29, Cardinal Radcliffe said he believed the church needed a "man of encounter" like Pope Francis and that he is "confident that we will be given the person that we need at this moment."
