One of the world's most important elections is taking place next month, and no Louisianans will vote.

With the death of Pope Francis, out of 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide, only 135 cardinals are eligible to weigh in with a secret ballot. 

There are no Louisiana cardinals.

Hundreds of thousands bid the pope goodbye a few days ago. He was buried at St. Mary Major Basilica .

A lifelong Catholic, Kathleen Bellow wasn't in attendance as the pope laid in state or as he was buried. Still, her grief is real. She was saddened by the April 21 death of the man who led her church for 12 years. Though she disagreed with him on a number of things, she appreciated and respected him for his humane, inclusive approach to pastoring and leading.

"I'm still grieving," she told me.

Dr. Kathleen Bellow is the director of Xavier University's Institute for Black Catholic Center, located at 4921 S. Dixon Street on Xavier's campus. Bellow is closely watching the selection of a new pope in a conclave of cardinals scheduled to start May 7, 2025. Courtesy of Xavier University

Bellow has been active with Xavier University of Louisiana's Institute for Black Catholic Studies since she was a Xavier student decades ago. Today she leads the institute.

Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson is a presumed candidate to become pope of the Roman Catholic Church. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini) Andrew Medichini

She is a die-hard Catholic, but Bellow told me "Men in the church run the other way when they see me coming." She remembers the days when Catholic women had to wear hairpieces and couldn't participate in ministries. She refuses to go back. 

According to Pew research, about half of all United States Catholics are Republicans or they lean Republican and 44% are Democrats or they lean Democrat. Catholics in our country are more liberal than Catholics elsewhere, though younger Catholics have been more conservative in recent years. 

In 14 months, the number of Republicans identifying themselves as MAGA has gone from 40% to 71%, according to a March NBC News Poll.

Cardinal Robert Sarah is presumed to be a candidate to succeed Pope Francis as pope. (Oct. 14, 2015. AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File) Andrew Medichini

Black Catholics such as Bellow are about 4% of the American Catholic population. They are among 200 million Catholics who are of African descent across the globe. More than 170 million of them are African.

As American diocese and parish populations shrink, the number of Catholics is booming in Africa, Asia and South America. Some Catholics say if ever there were a time for an African pope, the time is now.

Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, a presumed pope candidate, arrives for a college of cardinals' meeting, at the Vatican, Monday, April 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia) Gregorio Borgia

Black Catholics might like that melanin connection, but most might not like the Make America Great Again philosophies.

Generally, African cardinals are conservative. As a group, they oppose abortion, same-sex marriages and they oppose mass immigration. There's no wiggle room for IVF or incest abortions for some. Though Francis didn't endorse same-sex marriage, he made it OK to bless same-sex unions. Some African cardinals hated that. Some support keeping immigrants out, even urging them to stay home. 

It seems conservative cardinals have some papal candidate favorites, including  African Cardinal Robert Sarah from Guinea in West Africa.

Other African cardinals on some unofficial lists are Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson of Ghana.

Bellow met Cardinal Turkson when he visited Xavier to deliver a business school symposium speech. She likes him. She thinks he would be a good spiritual leader.

There is hope among conservative Catholics that one of their own can return the church to traditional values. There is hope among others that the next pope will build on the small progressive steps Pope Francis made. Bellow understands the conservative connection to mass said in Latin, novenas and other old school Catholic traditions. But she doesn't want to go back.

"I don't think the church is ready to go back to ultraconservative, Euro-centric ways," she said.

She's not alone.

"Pope Francis did more for LGBTQ Catholics than all of his predecessors combined," Jesuit Fr. James Martin, a priest and author of Building a Bridge, a book about the church and its connections with LGBTQ Catholics, told the National Catholic Reader recently. "Doctrinally nothing has changed, but pastorally a great deal has."

After Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI died in December 2022, Ralph E. Moore Jr., a columnist for the Afro American who writes for a number of publications, shared some history and his thoughts with the Black Catholic Messenger only days later. Though there are debates about whether Africans from northern Africa were Black, church records show that Pope Victor I led the church from 189-199, Pope Miltiades was pope 311-314 and Pope Gelasius I had his papal tenure 492-496. Some call them Black. Some say they were likely Black.

"As we mourn the pope emeritus, let us also say this: long live Pope Francis, and may he be followed one day by the fourth African pope — whomever that may be," Moore wrote.

MAGA Catholics might like the political philosophies of some conservative African cardinals more than more liberal Black Catholics do, but popes tend to grow in the job — and change.

Maybe when the white smoke wafts from the Sistine Chapel indicating there's a new pope, word will come that he is Black.