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.
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.
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.
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.
As a bishop, Tagle was known for chatting with the faithful after mass and even inviting beggars to dine with him at his residence.
He also once forgot to wear his clerical collar to a meeting.
But he is also known for being outspoken.
“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.
“Wounds have been inflicted by us bishops on victims and in fact the entire body of Christ,“ he told the delegation.
However, he has been accused of failing to tackle the issue sufficiently in the Philippines.
Delft had previously been convicted of child sexual abuse and banned from contact with children for 10 years.
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.
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.
“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.”
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