Like the late Argentine pope, he hails from a country far from the Catholic Church's traditional power base of Europe and came to Rome with an outsider's view.

Some who have put Tagle on unofficial short lists for the next pope say he would be a shoo-in to succeed Francis if cardinal electors who enter the secret conclave on Wednesday are looking for as close a similarity as possible in order to assertively continue Francis' progressive streak.

If Tagle were elected, it would also likely signal to the world's 1.4 billion Catholics that the cardinals want to go forward with Francis' vision of generally opening up the Church to the modern world by not choosing a man who might roll back some of the late pope's reforms.

It would also mean his fellow cardinals had shrugged off question marks over his management abilities.

"He would represent a continuity of what Pope Francis has been doing," said Rev. Emmanuel Alfonso, a former student of Tagle's who has known him for decades. "He's really like Pope Francis in terms of his love for the poor, his approachability and so on."

Tagle, the former archbishop of Manila, would be the first pope from what is now considered Asia, although in the early Church some popes hailed from what is now called the Middle East, technically part of Asia.

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