News:Cardinal Ambongo could be first African pope in over 1,500 years:see More

If Catholicism’s future is in Africa, as is so often touted, then when, not if, will there be an African pope in the modern era?

There have been three popes who have hailed from North Africa, the last one being Gelasius I, who reigned A.D. 492-496.

Today’s Roman Curia is lacking African leadership. No Vatican office is currently headed by an African. The most well-known prelate on the continent is undoubtedly 65-year-old Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Although Ambongo Besungu went to great efforts to stress his allegiance to Francis, it would be fairer to assess the relationship as one built off of pragmatism and reflexive loyalty to the pope, rather than true partnership.

Born in the tiny town of Boto, in the northwest corner of Congo, as the son of a rubber tree farmer, Ambongo Besungu entered the Franciscan Capuchin friars in 1981 and was ordained a priest in 1988, after studying moral theology at Rome’s Pontifical Alphonsian Academy.

Ambongo Besungu served as both major superior and the vice provincial for the Congolese Capuchins and had a brief academic career at the Catholic Faculties in Kinshasa, the nation’s capital. In 2004, Pope John Paul II appointed Ambongo Besungu, at the young age of 44, bishop of the Bokungu-Ikela Diocese.

By the mid-2010s, Ambongo Besungu had become involved in the Congolese Episcopal Conference’s Commission of Justice and Peace and the conference’s Commission for Natural Resources, eventually serving as president of both. During this time, he frequently traveled around to Western capitals with a simple, but direct message on exploitation: Hands off Africa!

In 2016, Francis named Ambongo Besungu archbishop of Mbandaka-Bikoro. Just two years later, in 2018, Ambongo Besungu became coadjutor of the Kinshasa Archdiocese, where he succeeded his late mentor, Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, a close collaborator of Francis and a legend in both the church and the country.

In Africa, Ambongo Besungu, like his predecessor, has become a leading voice among his confreres. He has served in a range of high-profile positions, including as the vice president of the National Episcopal Conference of the Congo and as host of Francis’ wildly successful visit to Kinshasa in 2023. Currently, Ambongo Besungu is the president of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), making him the de facto spokesman for all of Africa’s Catholic bishops.