Cardinal who embraced Philippines' gay Catholics could be the Francis continuity candidate for pope

On a balmy night outside Manila’s Baclaran church, Gerald Concepcion, 32, and his fellow devotees were decorating a float of the Virgin Mary with fragrant lilies and pink carnations.

MANILA — On a balmy night outside Manila’s Baclaran church, Gerald Concepcion, 32, and his fellow devotees were decorating a float of the Virgin Mary with fragrant lilies and pink carnations. He added artificial white doves to the arrangement, saying they were in honor of the late Pope Francis, who had led a radical shift in the Catholic Church’s treatment of LGBTQ people. 

“Pope Francis is a testament that God is alive,” Concepcion, a devout Catholic who works as a street vendor, told NBC News. “He accepted everyone, including us gay people who have long been marginalized.”

Francis’ death on April 21 has opened the eternal tension between choosing a successor that represents continuity, or one who will bring change, including a possible return to the church’s recent past of more conservative positions on issues like homosexuality.

Luis Antonio Tagle, a Filipino cardinal often dubbed the “Asian Francis” for his emphasis on poor and marginalized people, has emerged as a possible leading contender, or papabile, when the conclave meets on May 7 to elect Francis’ replacement.

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle with Pope Francis at the Vatican in 2013.Tiziana Fabi / AFP via Getty Images fileIf chosen as pope, Tagle could carry with him some lessons from the Philippines. Despite being the biggest Catholic nation in Asia — about 80% of Filipinos are Catholic — and the third-largest in the world, it is also one of the more LGBTQ-friendly countries in the region.