Paulo Cezar Costa

Cardinal Costa, a dogmatic theologian trained at the Gregorian University, has made few public statements on contested moral questions such as same-sex blessings, communion for the divorced and remarried, or abortion. His interviews since becoming a cardinal in 2022 focus on dialogue, the culture of encounter and the social mission of the Church. His position on these issues therefore remains largely unknown.

No public statement by Cardinal Costa on the traditional Latin Mass or Traditionis custodes has been found. In interviews he stresses a Church nourished by the Word of God, lay participation and lively parish communities, in line with the post-conciliar liturgical framework.

Ahead of Brazil's 2022 presidential election, Cardinal Costa urged politicians to address the people's real problems, such as poverty and social exclusion, rather than ideological battles, while stressing that the Church stays out of party politics. He has named ecology and the protection of the Amazon as issues on which the Church must be firm, and in 2025 he praised Pope Francis' legacy on the environment, the poor and migrants.

Created a cardinal by Pope Francis in 2022, Cardinal Costa was a voting member of both sessions of the Synod on Synodality (2023 and 2024). He has described Francis' vision of an open Church of encounter as his own and praised the late pope's legacy of simplicity and his non-ideological choice of bishops. He met Pope Leo XIV in a private audience in September 2025.

Cardinal Costa has been a member of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity since 2020. He presents Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini as his model of dialogue, founded a Martini chair at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio inspired by the 'Chair of Non-Believers', and says the Church must listen to the reasons of others, even those who seem distant.

Cardinal Costa speaks regularly to Brazilian and Italian media in a consensual, pastoral tone, centred on dialogue, the 'culture of encounter' and service. He avoids polemics and frames his public role in the capital as building bridges with the executive, legislative and judicial powers.