A contender to be pope?
With no official campaigning or list of candidates, there is much speculation about who will succeed Pope Francis.
Here is one cardinal cited by some as a potential frontrunner.
Jean-Marc Aveline, the Archbishop of Marseille, is a 66-year-old cardinal who, like Pope Francis, has been a voice for welcoming migrants and promoting interreligious dialogue.
Appreciated for his discretion, intellectual abilities and people skills, Cardinal Aveline in the past three years has gradually carved out a place for himself, to the extent that he is now frequently cited as a possible "papabile", or papal contender.
An emblematic fixture in the gritty, multicultural port city of Marseille, this advocate of brotherhood among various faiths was elected in April to head the French Bishops' Conference, a post he is due to take up in July.
Made a cardinal by Francis in 2022, Cardinal Aveline is a member of the Dicastery for Bishops and the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue.
Those roles within the Vatican departments bring him to Rome on a regular basis, where he is regarded as the figurehead of today's French Church.
"The conclave is something I've never experienced...I'll go there as a great spiritual retreat and come what may, listening to what the spirit whispers in our ears", he told journalists on the day of Francis' death.
Warm-hearted, and "very centred and very open", according to one of his peers, Cardinal Aveline was much appreciated by Francis.
With the pope, Cardinal Aveline shared an interest in dialogue with the Muslim world, the defence of migrants and the vision of a Church steered away from Rome and more focused towards the so-called "peripheries".
Cardinal Aveline was also one of the main architects of Francis's visit to Marseille in September 2023, for a meeting of bishops and young people of different creeds from the Mediterranean region.
"I wanted to show the people of Marseille that this Pope was part of the family," explained Cardinal Aveline afterwards.
Life in Marseille
Born 26 December 1958 in the Algerian city of Sidi Bel Abbès, Cardinal Aveline descends from a line of Andalusian settlers in Algeria.
But he moved at age four with his family to Marseille, settling in a working-class neighbourhood, and has spent most of his life in the bustling city.
Soon after graduating from school, the gifted student decided to become a priest rather than a teacher or a bus driver, as he had imagined himself as a child.
Ordained in 1984, he created the Marseille Institute for the Science and Theology of Religions (ISTR) in 1992, then joined the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue within the Roman Curia from 2008 to 2013.
Pope Francis appointed him Marseille's new archbishop in 2019 and three years later, gave him a cardinal's red hat.
Despite his ever-ready smile, Aveline does not mince words, as in August 2021 when he denounced drug traffickers in his city and "murderous and unscrupulous mafias (who) turn the youth of poor neighbourhoods into cannon fodder".
"Entire populations" in the poor city find themselves "trapped by their environment," he said in an appeal to raise consciousness.
