Filipino slum dwellers hope their cardinal will be pope

Residents in Manila slum want a pontiff who walks with the people, like Francis did

- Mara Cepeda

MANILA - In the alleyways of Sitio Militar, a poor neighbourhood in Quezon City near the Philippine capital, a church volunteer hoisted a life-size standee of Pope Francis, leading a quiet procession.

Behind her, activist-priest Robert Reyes pushed a wooden cart painted with images of Jesus, Saint Francis of Assisi and Mother Teresa. He calls it the "Kariton ni Kiko", a tribute to the nickname Filipinos had given the late pontiff and the makeshift pushcarts Manila's homeless use as their mobile homes.

It was part of a procession held after what Father Reyes described as a "Mass for the Poor" held at a church on May 7. This took place hours before cardinals over in the Vatican were set to gather inside the Sistine Chapel for the papal conclave to elect the next leader of the Catholic Church.

Thousands of kilometres away from the Vatican, in a slum in Metro Manila, the mass and procession is a prayer on wheels - a plea for a pope who walks with the people, like Pope Francis did.

"This is a symbol of a church that moves forward, a church on wheels, a church that does not stay in comfortable (halls). It is a church that goes out to people," said Father Reyes.

In the Philippines, many hope this kind of church would soon be helmed by a pope who is one of their own: Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, the former archbishop of Manila who is now among the highest-ranking Asians in the Vatican.

"I want Tagle to be our next pope. He's close to poor people like me, just like how Pope Francis was," said 66-year-old Nina Barobaro, a church server who once sold pineapples to scrape by.