Cardinal Stephen Chow, 65, the bishop of Hong Kong, was the only Chinese cardinal to vote in the conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV. He spoke to America’s Vatican correspondent about his experience in the conclave.
Cardinal Chow was not the first Chinese cardinal to vote in a papal election; he was, in fact, the third. The first was Thomas Tien Ken-sin, S.V.D., the former archbishop of Peking, who was made a cardinal by Pius XII in 1946 but was expelled from China in 1951; he voted in the 1958 conclave that elected John XXIII and in the 1963 conclave that elected Paul VI. The second was John Tong Hon, then bishop of Hong Kong, who voted in the 2013 conclave that elected Pope Francis.
Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun participated in the pre-conclave General Congregations of cardinals in 2013 and 2025 but was not an elector in either since he was over the age of 80.
The interview that follows took place in Rome on May 13, and has been edited for clarity and length.
Cardinal Chow, this was your first conclave.
And hopefully my last one!
Did you know what to expect?
No, I didn’t know what to expect. Honestly.
You must have been aware that the names of some cardinals were being mentioned before you entered the conclave.
Yes, in the media. I knew those names but, at the same time, I felt I could not trust them as facts; they were speculations.
So in your own mind you had no candidate going into the conclave.
None.
What was it like to be inside?
For me as a Jesuit, I know this is discernment. The whole idea of going into a conclave means you need to open yourself, so you have the inner freedom to connect with the Spirit.
The General Congregations are an important time because you listen to a lot [of cardinals speaking], sometimes just [giving] homilies (laughs). You hear and you listen and then you have—at least I got—a sense of the direction in which the church wants to go, and you see how Francis has influenced the church. Listening to my fellow cardinals, I [got an idea of] the desired future of the church, the direction it is going in, and that gave me a sense of who could be the successor of Peter after Francis. So those meetings were helpful.
Did the General Congregations also help you to identify some possible candidates?
I would say the type of candidates, the profile.
Could you summarize that profile?
I think it’s quite clear that it was a pastoral pope, because we could see from the funeral of Francis, 400,000 people turned up in a few days. After his death, the world turned out, not just the church, to mourn and to say goodbye. It was then very clear to me that we’re not electing a pope only for the church, but also for the world. So we could see how Francis has influenced the world, impressed the world as a pastor, a shepherd of the world.
Personally, I’m very grateful for Pope Francis reconnecting the church with the world. In the past, I don’t think the world cared so much about our conclaves. But now there was much interest. You could see how many members of the media turned out in the pre-conclave period. And every day when we went to the General Congregations, we had to walk from where we were staying to the synod hall, and I had to fight my way through the journalists, there were so many of them—the Vatican said 6,000.
I know the journalists have a job to do but, at the same time, we have been asked not to divulge what’s said. Anyway, I knew going into the conclave that the world is really expecting, waiting for a pope from the church. I think not many of them are Catholics, but they do care. So, who do I vote for? Someone not just for the church, but also a pastor for the world.
When you were in the conclave without your cell phone or other means of communication, what did it feel like?
It’s really kind of surreal. But we could take in a book, we could read whatever we wanted, a novel or whatever. Some, but not all of us, received this one in the mail where we stayed before the conclave: The St. Gallen Mafia.
You were also given the profiles of some of the cardinals in book form by an outside entity.
We were given the official profiles [of the electors] by the Vatican, but during the general congregations we were also given a book [The College of Cardinals Report] by an outside body, but I didn’t keep that one. I didn’t take it into the conclave.
What did the cardinals feel about being given such books?
Not very positive, they felt like they were being manipulated.
What did you feel at the Mass before the conclave?
Yet again, it was all in Latin and Italian, even though some cardinals, including myself, don’t speak Italian. There was only one reading in English. It was difficult; it’s hard to feel connected when you don’t speak the language and there’s no translation. One thing I really appreciated during the general congregations was the translations, there were very good translations into English. I applaud the two translators, at least I could feel connected. But at that Mass, also the homily was not understood by me and some others. I think the Holy Father should better review the language arrangements for the future conclaves.
After lunch and a rest you all processed into the Sistine Chapel. What did it feel like?
It was a very solemn moment. I felt the weight of the election, and being connected to history. The holy rituals are connected to history, right? But then we’re going with a view to the future. I felt this a very important moment—I don’t know how to express that, but I felt the sacredness and the weight of what was happening.
Were you in silence inside the Sistine Chapel, or could you talk to other cardinals?
We could talk to each other quietly about the logistics but not on the so-called candidates. I can’t say much on that.
When you went to take the oath, you had to read it in Latin.
Yes, Latin! And we didn’t realize there was live-streaming. I wasn’t the only one who didn’t speak Latin; we were not even coached on how to read that oath. I found it embarrassing having to do that publicly without being aware of the live-streaming.
Yet you are fluent in the two most spoken languages in the world, English and Chinese.
They don’t count here!
What did you feel as you took the oath?
I knew it because we had the English translation in the constitution for the election of the pope. So, it’s not that I didn't realize what I was swearing, right? But it’s just that pronouncing those words in Latin is clumsy.
Then you had the preacher of the papal household, Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa. He spoke for around 40 minutes.
It was long. But we were given the English translation. We had the English text. Thanks be to God. So I could read and follow it. It was a good talk!
Then you went to cast your first vote. Did you have clarity in your mind about who you were voting for?
Oh yeah!
What did it feel like to be casting that first vote?
As I say, this is important, the sacredness and the weight. But we know the first ballot is always scattered. I mean, the recent history is always this. Imagine if we had elected the pope on the first ballot: People would start wondering and say it’s rigged; it was all decided before you go in.
The first ballot is the first time the cardinals put the cards on the table, as it were, and they were able to see who the main contenders were.
When you see the first ballot you can see who are the candidates that carried more weight.
Next morning you had Mass in the Pauline chapel, and then you went to the Sistine Chapel to vote for a second time. And that’s when the cardinals really began to see where the voting is leading.
Let me put it in the spiritual way. It’s really discernment. Discernment is you go in already with some data, and you contemplate on that, you pray about that and you follow the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit kind of moves your heart, and you can choose to respond or not. You can choose to fix on your own preference. Or you listen. And then you see people, gradually, come to an agreement. It’s really the Holy Spirit, if you listen, who brings us together.
So that first ballot, the first night, indicated something. The second morning the cardinals returned after reflecting overnight and then the voting was more decisive.
Let’s say there’s more clarity. Individually, you get more clarity. This is a consoling experience. It’s a spiritual and consoling experience that the Holy Spirit is guiding, and we are responding. That’s what I’ve been saying to people. Our hearts were moved by the Holy Spirit, and we responded.
What happened when he reached the 89 votes needed for election?
People clapped their hands. We all had a big piece of paper, on which we could write. I was personally keeping my own tally, as were some others.
When Cardinal Parolin, who presided over the conclave, went to ask if he accepted, what was his reaction?
He said, “Accepto!” and there was another round of applause. And then the name he would choose for himself.
He then went off to the room of tears, and when he came back, what was the reaction?
Another round of applause.
Everybody then went up to him. What did you say when you greeted him?
I spoke in English. I learned that, last time, Cardinal Tong brought the statue of Our Lady of Sheshan. So I brought one this time and said, “I brought this gift for you—Our Lady of Sheshan.” He was surprised. I said, “Please don’t forget the church in China and the Chinese people!”
Is there anything else you’d like to say?
I find that I know the whole experience is really a spiritual journey. It has other things, but especially during the conclave, it’s the Spirit who was working, and I’m grateful to my brother cardinals, who were responding to the prompting of the Spirit, because if a conclave lasts a long, long time, it’s probably because we are not really listening or responding to the Spirit.
