Meet Cardinal Chomali

The world knows that history was made on May 8, 2025, when Cardinal Robert Prevost, a Chicago native, was chosen to lead the Catholic Church as the first ever American pope, choosing to take the name Pope Leo XIV.

However, another type of history could have been made at the recent papal conclave in that another of the 133 cardinals who was eligible to be selected as the next pope, Cardinal Fernando Chomali Garib of Chile is not only a person who stutters, but is outspoken about his struggles with stuttering. The world could have had a pope who stutters to foster a deeper level of understanding and compassion about stuttering!

Cardinal Chomali received a degree in civil engineering from Pontifical Catholic University of Chile in 1981, later beginning his seminary studies in 1984 at the Pontifical Major Seminary of Santiago. He was ordained a priest in 1991. In 1994 he received a doctorate in theology from Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He was appointed as Auxiliary Bishop of Santiago de Chile and served in that position from 2006 to 2001; later he served as Archbishop of Concepcion from 2011 to 2023. He has been serving as Archbishop of Santiago de Chile since 2023 and was made a Cardinal in 2024.

On May 7, People.com did a profile of Cardinal Chomali with an article titled Cardinal Shares Video of Himself Hand-Washing His Own Shirt in Order to Look His Best for the Conclave.

The Spanish-language Catholic website Portaluz.org has an article titled A Fernando Chomali no querian admitirlo a sacerdocio porque era tartamudo. Dios lo sano y hoy es cardenal, which translates to “They did not want to admit Fernando Chomali to the priesthood because he was a stutterer. God cured him and now he is a cardinal.”

The article contains a video of a presentation that Cardinal Chomali gave on April 3, 2025, in which he talked about his faith formation as a recent university graduate working as an engineer with an interest in entering the seminary but struggling with stuttering. He relates that the superiors at the seminary did not want him to enter because he was a person who stuttered.

He says that one bishop said that he was an otherwise good candidate for the seminary, but said, “He is a stutterer. What are we going to do with him? Let’s let him enter and see what happens.” He states that his parents had taken him all around to various specialists for a cure during his life but with no success. He speaks about an excellent speech therapist he had sessions with before entering the seminary, but it did not help him stop stuttering. During the presentation he discusses the bullying he was a target during his early life and credits those experiences as the reason why he is an activist against all types of bullying. In the end, he credits his doing the work of God and the public speaking it required to helping him rise his stuttering to fluent speech.

While we of course wish Pope Leo XIV all the best, if Cardinal Chomali had been chosen as pope by the papal conclave, it definitely would have put stuttering at the forefront of the world media and as an outspoken advocate for people who stutter. Cardinal Chomali as pope would have spread a message of compassion for people who stutter and fostered a better understanding of stuttering.

Posted July 1, 2025

CELEBRITY FOCUS

Mel Tillis

Mel Tillis, born Lonnie Melvin Tillis, was an influential figure in country music, both as a songwriter and a performer. His journey to fame was marked by overcoming personal challenges, including a stutter that he turned into a defining part of his public persona.

Ken Venturi

As much of the nation watches the U.S. Open Golf Championship, it is impossible not to think about our late friend Ken Venturi. Ken overcame many challenges to win the Open at Congressional in 1964 and go on to become the voice of golf for more than three decades.

However, Ken faced no bigger obstacle than stuttering. Ken Venturi was a champion to those who stutter, going out of his way to share his personal experience when consulted by a colleague, friend, or child who stutters.

Winston Churchill

Seeking to "remove Winston Churchill's stutter by second guessing the diagnosis" indicates neither a truthful retelling of history nor an informed opinion about a complex speech disorder, say experts in the field of speech-language pathology.

Recent news reports that quote Dr. John Mather, a Washington physician, as saying that Churchill's stutter "is a lie" brought adamant critical response from specialists in the field of stuttering and fluency disorders.

King George

In November 2010, worldwide movie audiences were presented with a most interesting and unusual movie release with The King’s Speech, starring Colin Firth as King George VI and Helena Bonham Carter as his wife Elizabeth.

Unfortunately, history may have forgotten the courageous and inspiring story of Prince Albert who stuttered badly and never dreamed that he would ever be king when his older brother, King Edward VIII, abruptly abdicated the throne in 1936 to marry Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee.

Bill Withers

While Bill Withers has long been on the Stuttering Foundation's list of Famous People Who Stutter, many people probably didn’t realize he stuttered. He passed away on March 30, 2020.

Born in 1938 in Slab Fork, W.V., Withers was the youngest of six children. When his father died when Withers was small, he was raised by his mother and grandmother, both of whom worked as domestics.