An ecumenical and “green” patriarch
Bartholomeos I, Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople, 84 years old
The project has been on the job for over ten years. On the sidelines of an interview with Pope Francis at the end of May 2014 in the Holy Land, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomeos I of Constantinople had slipped information to journalists: “We agreed to let in inheritance (…) to meet in Nicée in 2025, to celebrate all together, after seventeen centuries, the anniversary of the first truly ecumenical council, from which the Credo emerged. »» A few months before the deadline, the preparations for this major interfaith event go well. The project should give rise to a new meeting between Bartholomeos and François-the bishop of Rome having reaffirmed his wish to go, in May, to Iznik (ex-nicée) in Turkey. Between the two men, who readily say they have woven a relationship of “friendship”, this should be an opportunity to extend the reflection on a common date for Easter.
Central figure of Byzantine Orthodoxy since its election in 1991 in the Phanar, Bartholomeos marked the time by its interreligious commitment. “First among his peers”he is at the head of a church which, despite its modest size – 3.5 million faithful – retains a spiritual authority on 300 million believers, in a landscape fractured in particular of the war in Ukraine. This year, his voice should also continue to focus on ecological emergency. Nicknamed “Green patriarch”his pioneering commitment for the safeguard of creation has indeed inspired the encyclical Laudato yes Pope Francis… whose 10th anniversary will be celebrated this year.
A messenger of the unit
Tawadros II, Patriarch Copte-Orthodox d’Alexandrie, 72 years old
It is at the heart of his Alexandria patriarchy that the sixth World Conference of Faith and Constitution will be held from October 24 to 28 2025, on the theme “What horizons for the visible unit?” ». Organized by the Ecumenical Council of Churches (COE) in the wake of the 1700ᵉ anniversary of the Council of Nicea, the event should echo, in Egypt, to the efforts of the Patriarch Copte-Orthodox Tawadros II to advance dialogue with the other Christian churches . And this, in a difficult internal context, the Saint-Synod of its church having decided to suspend its theological dialogue with Rome, after the publication of the declaration Confidence in supplicating paved the way for blessings of same -sex couples.
Now 72 years old, this former monk of the Saint-ishoy monastery, in the north of Cairo, is the head of a community of 10 million faithful. Since his arrival on the throne of Saint-Marc in 2012, Tawadros II has made ecumenism one of the main axes of his reforms. On May 10, 2023, on the occasion of the Friendship Day between Copts and Catholics, he went to the Vatican, fifty years after his predecessor, Chenouda III. He then presided over the general hearing with François and had – spoke – spoke. Without being unanimous in a church still divided by the theological heritage of Chenouda III – which had gradually closed the door to the ecumenical dialogue -, Tawadros II appears today as a reformer, who encourages the monks to train in the foreign to other theologies.
Patriarch of a torn Holy Land
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, 59, Latin patriarch of Jerusalem
“You have become a light for our church. »» On December 22, 2024, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa had managed to unravel the blockade of Gaza to come and celebrate Christmas mass and encourage parishioners of the small community of the enclave, under the Israeli bombs since the bloody attacks of Hamas on October 7 2023. Latin patriarch of Jerusalem since 2020, Pierbattista Pizzaballa has been under the spotlight since the start of the war which has more than ever torn the Holy Land. Created Cardinal in September 2023, this Franciscan close to Pope Francis and perfectly master Hebrew tried to assume as best they can a balanced position in this conflict.
In October 2023, he proposed to be hostage in exchange for those retained by Hamas, clearly condemning the attack on October 7: “Let me be very clear, he hammered then. Hamas has committed an act of barbarism against Israel ”. A few months later, a keffieh appeared on the shoulders during the Christmas procession in Bethlehem, and had dedicated in particular his thoughts to the inhabitants of Gaza, “Exposed to incomprehensible violence”. A year later, he was delighted with the ceasefire of January 21 while inviting leaders to face the causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In 2025, that which some see as a papabile will closely follow the different stages of the ceasefire, will try to rebuild confidence between communities fractured by war and will work to facilitate the long-awaited return of pilgrims in pilgrims Holy Land.
The parish priest in the ruins of Gaza
Gabriel Romanelli, parish priest of the Latin parish of the Sainte-Famille de Gaza, 55 years old
Parish priest of the Latin parish of the Sainte-Famille in Gaza-Ville, the only one in the Palestinian enclave, the Argentine priest had been blocked outside Gaza when the war broke out on October 7, 2023. And his 1000 faithful in May of the following year, he became one of the voices telling the conflict.
Called daily on the phone by Pope Francis, this missionary of the embodied verb, who had arrived in the Holy Land for thirty years, shared the joy of the Gazaouis at the announcement of the ceasefire and intends to participate in the reconstruction of Gaza, “Morally and materially”. In January 2025, nearly 60,000 people, through the parish, were able to receive help from the Catholic church.
The hope of free and inclusive Syria
Bishop Jacques Mourad, 56, Syrian-Catholic archbishop of Homs
The day after the fall of Bashar al-Assad, when a coalition led by Islamists had just taken power in Syria, the Archbishop of Homs surprised by his optimism. «We finally start to feel the scent of freedom »declared Mgr Jacques Mourad, confident in the fate of Christians and the advent of a united Syria.
The Syrian-Catholic Archbishop of Homs knows what the country is coming back: it was itself captive of the Islamic State in 2015. Long-standing craftsman of the Islamo-Christian dialogue, it had founded with the Jesuit Paolo Dall’oglio , disappeared, the monastic community of Mar Moussa. This year, he will have to weigh to enforce the rights of Christians and give them a place in the construction of Syria of tomorrow.
A “referee” of Shiism on the international scene
Ali Khamenei, 85, Iranian supreme guide
From Iran to Yemen, via Lebanon or Iraq, its shadow always hovers behind the major decisions of the Shiite world. Former disciple of Rouhollah Khomeini (1902-1989)-The great craftsman of the Islamic Revolution in Iran-, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, trained in Qom, was first illustrated as president (1981-1989) before becoming a guide supreme in 1989.
Support for Hezbollah, Houthistes … In 2025, while the Middle East experienced major upheavals in the wake of war in Gaza, Israel and Lebanon, its influence on the Shiite international axis should remain decisive. At 85, the question of its succession also arises, in a context where Iran seeks to assert itself as a regional power – while managing its many interior challenges.
Face of the turning point of Saudi Islam
Mohammed Al Issa, 59, Secretary General of the World Islamic League
Figure of the softening of Saudi Wahhabism, Mohammed Al Issa has traveled the world to promote the vision of the interreligious dialogue promoted by Saudi Arabia of Mohamed bin Salmane. Secretary General of the powerful World Islamic League, former Minister of Justice, the Saudi religious met in December for the third time Pope Francis, after 2017 and 2020. Above all, he wounded the merger with the Jewish community , leading a historic prayer in 2020 with dozens of ulemas in front of the Auschwitz camp for the 75th anniversary of the Holocaust. Will his voluntarism survive all the current tensions of the Middle East?
The spiritual and political leader in protest in Mali
Mahmoud Dicko, Conservative Malian Imam, 71 years old
Figure of a protest movement which led to the fall of Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, overthrown by a military coup in 2020, Imam Mahmoud Dicko is today one of the rare voices of opposition opposition to the junta in power in Mali. Born in 1954, president for more than ten years from the High Malian Islamic Council (HCIM), this popular imam with conservative values seems to be one of the only ones who can bring together, in a context of restriction of freedoms under the military regime.
At the end of December 2023, he was welcomed in Algeria with the honors of President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, causing diplomatic tensions between the two countries. Since then, its distance from Mali has been perceived as a forced exile. What will become of it?
A man of dialogue in a divided Mali
Chérif Ousmane Madani Haïdara, President of the High Islamic Council of Mali, 69 years old
In 2012, accompanied by the Archbishop of Bamako, this Sufi preacher had contributed to the appeasement of his country, Mali, by succeeding in establishing a dialogue with the authors of the coup. Will he manage to make his calls for forgiveness and national unity heard in 2025, when the country is still marked by instability? The transitional government, in power for two new coups in 2020 and 2021, has so far announced any election date. At the head of the High Islamic Council of Mali since 2019, this charismatic leader benefits in any case from a strong aura. Ançar Dine, the Islamic organization he created in 1991, which advocates the participation of Muslims in the construction of their country, has some 70,000 members.
The strong man of the African Church
Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo, archbishop of Kinshasa (RD-Congo), 65 years old
He is the leader of African Catholics, and the one whispering in the pope’s ear. President of the symposium of African episcopal conferences and member of the Council of Nine Cardinals surrounding François, Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo, archbishop of Kinshasa, carries the voice of Africa to the Vatican, sometimes with a crash as he did by opposing blessings of same -sex couples. While the war against the militias of Rwanda in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo is raging, it is one of the votes calling for peace while sometimes criticizing the inaction and the helplessness of the power in place in his country, to the point of having been the subject of judicial information for “Seditious words”.
A nun to the aid of women victims of abuse
Sister Rosemary Nyirumbe, founder of host structures for young women victims in Uganda, 67 years old
Photos show Sister Rosemary, her face lit by a radiant smile, welcoming the pope or at the gallery of the world jubilee conference with the nuns, in the Vatican on January 23. But the terrain in which this Ugandan nun is evolving is quite different: for twenty-five years, this woman has been back to anything to go to meet thousands of women kidnapped or slavery by the militiamen of the Lord of the Lord of the Lord of the Lord , which bloodied the north of the country for decades. She created for them reception centers, sewing workshops or a nutrition program. What deserve the tribute made by the Vatican to the dedication of the nuns, “Prophetesses of hope”.
(tagstotranslate) Religious personality