Who is Matteo Zuppi? The ‘street priest’ in the running to be Pope

White smoke ascended from the Sistine Chapel chimney on Thursday evening, announcing the election of the 267th pope.

The new pontiff's identity and chosen name will soon be revealed from the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica, followed by their first public address and blessing.

Among the contenders is Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, 69, the Archbishop of Bologna.

A "street priest"reminiscent of Pope Francis, Cardinal Zuppi's career saw rapid advancement under the former pontiff.

Appointed to lead the affluent Archdiocese of Bologna in 2015, he was elevated to cardinal in 2019.

He is closely affiliated with the Sant’Egidio Community, a Rome-based Catholic charity that was influential under Francis, particularly in interfaith dialogue.

Cardinal Zuppi was part of Sant’Egidio’s team that helped negotiate the end of Mozambique’s civil war in the 1990s and was named Francis’ peace envoy for Russia’s war in Ukraine.

He traveled to Kyiv and Moscow after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed to the Holy See for help in winning the release of 19,000 Ukrainian children taken from their families and brought to Russia during the war. The mission also took him to China and the United States.

After making him a cardinal, Francis made clear he wanted him in charge of Italy’s bishops, a sign of his admiration for the prelate who, like Francis, is known as a “street priest” – someone who prioritises ministering to poor and homeless people and refugees.

Zuppi would be a candidate in Francis’ tradition of ministering to those on the margins, although his relative youth would count against him for cardinals seeking a short papacy.

In a sign of his progressive leanings, Zuppi wrote the introduction to the Italian edition of Building a Bridge, by the Rev. James Martin, an American Jesuit, about the church’s need to improve its outreach to the LGBTQ+ community.

Zuppi wrote that building bridges with the community was a “difficult process, still unfolding”.

He recognised that “doing nothing, on the other hand, risks causing a great deal of suffering, makes people feel lonely, and often leads to the adoption of positions that are both contrasting and extreme”.

Zuppi's family also has strong institutional ties: His father worked for the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, and his mother was the niece of Cardinal Carlo Confalonieri, dean of the College of Cardinals in the 1960s and 1970s.