3 hours ago, Colonels_Wear_Blue said:

The assumption is that the Papal Conclave to determine the new pope will begin sometime between May 6 and May 11. The current Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, will be responsible for running the Conclave and has not yet given any definite word on when it will begin.

The traditional mourning period is 9 days, so May 5 would be the beginning of the first week following the period.

The list of possible successors.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/22/world/pope-francis-successor-frontrunners-intl-dg/index.html

Surprised to see multiple Americans on the list.

16 hours ago, Colonels_Wear_Blue said:

Pope Francis will be the first pope to be buried outside the walls of the Vatican since Pope Leo XIII, who died in 1903. Leo XIII is buried in the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome.

Thanks for including this. I was going to ask how many popes are buried outside of Rome? I'm guessing not many, especially since death and burial would have been a speedy task centuries ago due to the inability to preserve a body. Would it have even been possible for Francis to choose to be buried in Argentina?

10 hours ago, gchs_uk9 said:

Thanks for including this. I was going to ask how many popes are buried outside of Rome? I'm guessing not many, especially since death and burial would have been a speedy task centuries ago due to the inability to preserve a body. Would it have even been possible for Francis to choose to be buried in Argentina?

As far as I know of there aren't any hard and set "rules" in place about where Popes are buried so much there are just nearly 2000 years worth of tradition about how it has usually been done that basically dictates things. There was a period during the 14th century where the papacy was moved to Avignon, France due to factional disputes among the College of Cardinals. The Cardinals from France had begun to feel that the Italian Cardinals were kind of running the show in the Church, largely on part of the fact that the Vatican was located within Italy and Rome...so when Frenchman Raymond Bertrand de Got was elected as Pope Clement V, he refused to go to Rome and the papacy settled in Avignon, France for the next 5 or 6 popes after Clement V. But anyway, some of the popes from the Avignon Papacy era are buried in France, and I believe a handful of other popes have been buried in Italy outside of the Vatican and Rome, but as far as I know of there haven't ever been any popes buried elsewhere.

Fun fact: Clement V was one of very few non-Cardinals to be elected Pope. There are no rules that state that only Cardinals can be elected Pope. The only rule about eligibility is that it must be a baptized Roman Catholic male in good standing with the Church. (There is also an understood rule there that it must be an unmarried man since the Pope is also the Bishop of Rome, and Canon law states that married men cannot become bishop.) The last non-Cardinal elected to the papacy was Pope Urban VI, elected in 1378.

22 hours ago, Tranquility Base said:

The list of possible successors.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/22/world/pope-francis-successor-frontrunners-intl-dg/index.html

Surprised to see multiple Americans on the list.

The interesting thing here is how much of this is just 100% conjecture. So much of what will go on remains to be seen until all of the Cardinal Electors are sitting together in one place to discuss and debate. Cardinals may interact more or less with other particular Cardinals due to geographic proximity, due to offices held within the church, due to personal beliefs, and so on...and all of that can play a role in who they may or may not side with when it comes to selecting the new Pope from among the other Cardinals.

Pope Francis Francis (then as Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio) was a favorite in the voting during the 2005 Papal Conclave when Benedict XVI was elected. Some people said they felt it was because the College of Cardinals was still hesitant to elect a Pope from the New World. Kinda wild to think that there was still discussion pertaining to concerns about "the New World" in 2005, isn't it?

Then going into the 2013 Papal Conclave, some experts actually felt that Cardinal Bergoglio was out of the discussion for selection after not being selected in 2005. Others felt like the fact that Bergoglio was a favorite to so many in 2005 made him a shoe-in for Pope. Other than Bergoglio, the names that were most mentioned going into the 2013 Conclave were:
- Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz (Brazil, current age 78)
- Cardinal Timothy Dolan (USA, current age 75)
- Cardinal Marc Ouellet (Canada, current age 80)
- Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi (Italy, current age 82)
- Cardinal Leonardo Sandri (Argentina, current age 81)
- Cardinal Odilo Pedro Scherer (Brazil, current age 75)
- Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn (Austria, current age 80)
- Cardinal Angelo Scola (Italy, current age 83)
- Cardinal Luis Tagle (Philippines, current age 67)
- Cadinal Peter Turkson (Ghana, current age 76)

With all of the ballots burned following each round of voting, there is never any officially released results of each vote. In 2006 there were allegedly photos from the diary of an unnamed Cardinal that were leaked to the press and contained what were said to be the voting results from that 2005 Papal Conclave. Then in 2019 Irish journalist Gerard O'Connell, who is considered among the premiere Vatican experts in journalism, published a book containing what he alleged to be the voting results from the 2013 Papal Conclave, although O'Connell wouldn't elaborate on how he obtained the voting results. Anyway, during the actual conclave it's alleged that Cardinal Bergoglio, Cardinal Scola, and Cardinal Ouellet, and Cardinal Scherer were the only "favorites" to end up receiveing votes, and it was effectively a matter of choosing between Cardinal Scola and Cardinal Bergoglio.

For some people, this is more exciting than the NFL Draft.

A lot of the "experts" in the press and in the church who have kept a close eye on the Vatican and the Roman Curia seem to be saying that there aren't really any clear favorites for election to the papacy, albeit there are some names that seem to be coming up a little more frequently than others.

There's an old saying among Italian Catholics: "Always follow a fat pope with a skinny one." The reference being made is that the Cardinal Electors generally tend to have a pendulum swing from one conclave to the next when it comes to the ideologies held by the Popes they elect. Pope St. John XXIII was a reformer, who called the Vatican II Council, which brought about some of the most notable changes in the history of Catholicism. He was followed by Pope Paul VI, who was a conservative (he famously reaffirmed the traditional Catholic teachings on birth control in his encyclical, Humanae Vitae), but he showed some progressive leanings. Then John Paul I came along, and he ended up dying 33 days after his election so there wasn't really much time for him to establish what his idealogical standpoint was, but St. John Paul II followed JPI, and JPII was definitely a reformer. JPII was followed by Benedict XVI, who was a conservative that was known for upholding virtually all traditional Catholic teachings and standpoints. Then Pope Francis came after him, and Francis may have been the most progressive Pope in Church history.

So if things follow suit with "Always follow a fat pope with a skinny one," we can probably expect a more conservative leaning Pope coming out of this upcoming Conclave - although if that does end up being the case, I kind of suspect it may be a somewhat progressive-leaning conservative.

On 4/22/2025 at 12:00 AM, Colonels_Wear_Blue said:

There are currently 252 Cardinals in the College of Cardinals, and 149 of them became Cardinals during Pope Francis' consistories.

Cardinals who have already passed their 80th birthday are ineligible to participate in Papal Conclaves, so of the 252 total current Cardinals, there are 135 that are eligible to participate in the upcoming Papal Conclave, and all but 27 of the eligible Cardinal Electors were elevated to Cardinal in consistories during Pope Francis' papacy.

One point of clarification to be made here...Cardinals who have already passed their 80th birthday aren't ineligible to participate in Papal Conclaves, but they ARE eligible to be elected as Pope. There have only been 5 Popes who have been 80 or older when they were elected, though, and the most recent of those was Celestine III in 1191. And even then, the documentation of age isn't considered exactly reliable from that time period. The last time a the Cardinal Electors chose a 79 year old was almost 3-1/2 centuries ago when Pope Alexander VIII was elected.

Interestingly enough, though I've seen a lot of news outlets naming octogenarians as potential favorites for the papacy this go-around...and I just don't see that as being realistic. Cardinal Ouellet (Canada, age 80), Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn (Austria, age 80), and Cardinal Angelo Scola (Italy, age 83) all seem to have their names coming up in various discussions, though.

12 hours ago, Colonels_Wear_Blue said:

There have only been 5 Popes who have been 80 or older when they were elected, though, and the most recent of those was Celestine III in 1191. And even then, the documentation of age isn't considered exactly reliable from that time period.

Who can forget him, though?! Man was a star!

Maybe they should have a Cardinal combine in Indy.  Test them on their 40 yard times and vertical jumps.

On 4/22/2025 at 10:08 PM, Tranquility Base said:

The list of possible successors.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/22/world/pope-francis-successor-frontrunners-intl-dg/index.html

Surprised to see multiple Americans on the list.

Most Church experts, including most of the current Cardinals from North America, have made comments in the last couple of decades about doubts regarding a Pope coming from the United States any time soon, based largely on the international economic and military role the US has and the possibility of any implications coming out of the Pope's ties to the US. (FYI, the BluegrassPreps Terms of Service apply here as much as anywhere else on the site, so be mindful of the No Politics Policy.) I tend to agree that there isn't going to be Pope from the US any time soon, and perhaps not even in my lifetime. There are currently 17 Cardinals in the US, and only 10 of them are papabile because 7 are age 80+ and are thereby ineligible as Cardinal Electors.

Also notable, thus far there has been one Cardinals who has said he will not be taking part in the 2025 Papal Conclave, and there is some conjecture as to whether not any of the other Cardinals aged 78 or 79 will follow suit. Cardinal Antonio Cañizares (Spain, age 79) has said he will not attend the Conclave due to age and declining health. Cardinal Vinko Puljić (Bosnia and Herzegovina, age 79) had initially announced that he would not attend the Conclave for health reasons, but today he announced that he has been given clearance by his doctors to go ahead and contend. Cardinal Puljić has never been mentioned among likely papabile, but it's assumed that he will more than likely be asking the other Cardinal Electors not to vote for him, and will only be attending as a voter, himself.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin (Italy, age 70, created Cardinal in 2014 by Francis)
I can definitely see where Cardinal Parolin would be a popular choice. His role as the Cardinal Secretary of State does kind of make it historically unlikely that he would be elected. The office of Cardinal Secretary of State has existed in the Catholic Church since Pope Leo X's papacy from 1513-1521, and there have only been 2 Popes in 500 years of its existence that have been elected directly from that office: Alexander VII (1655-1667) and Pope Clement IX (1667-1669). Cardinal Parolin worked as a diplomat for the Vatican for over 30 years, and spend extended periods stationed in Nigeria, Mexico and Venezuela, which is a major positive for him and for his ability to related to Africa and Latin America. He is definitely a liberal-leaning prelate, though, which could very possibly make those who are looking for someone whose is ideologically contrasting to Pope Francis vote for someone else.

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle (Phillipines, age 67, created Cardinal in 2012 by Benedict XVI)
Cardinal Tagle has an established reputation as a liberal-leaning prelate, like Cardinal Parolin. He has expressed an interest in re-assessing Humanae Vitae and the Church's stance on birth control, while also causing general confusion on his stance on birth control by occasionally criticizing people who use it. Tagle is known for his warmth and major strengths when it comes to evangelism, but along that line, he has also made controversial statements within the church regarding who should be eligible to receive communion, as well as statements that go against Church teachings on LGBTQ individuals and the Church's stance on divorce/remarriage. Cardinal Tagle was also notably put in chare of Caritas Internationalis (the Catholic Church's international charity and relief service) in 2015, and then in 2022 Tagle and the entire Caritas board were dismissed after an internal investigation by the Vatican that found major deficiencies in their operation of the service. That's definitely something I think could potentially make it difficult for the Cardinal Electors to elect him.

Cardinal Peter Erdo (Hungary, age 72, created Cardinal in 2003 by John Paul II)
Cardinal Erdo is a very established conservative, and is one of five Cardinals by Pope John Paul II who are eligible to participate in the 2025 Papal Conclave. With more than 2 decades as a Cardinal, he is one of the most well-known among the papabile, and he is still only 72 (Benedict XVI was 78 when elected and Francis was 76 when elected). Erdo has never been noted as being particularly warm or engaging, but after serving twice as president of the Council of the Bishops' Conferences of Europe, and serving relator general for the Third Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in Rome he is considered to be one of the Cardinals with the most personal association and working relationships among the other members of the College of Cardinals. One of the biggest strikes against Cardinal Erdo is a statement he made during the European migrant crisis in 2015 that likened taking in refugees to aiding human trafficking.

Cardinal Robert Sarah (Guinea, age 79, created Cardinal by Benedict XVI)
Cardinal Sarah was mentioned in some conversations prior to the 2013 Papal Conclave as a possible contender for Pope, with many people expressing interest in the Catholic Church having it's first black Pope. He has expressed clearly conservative views on nearly all major issues within the Church, and that oftentimes put him at odds with Pope Francis. All Bishops and Cardinals are required to submit a letter of resignation to the Pope once they turn 75, and then it's up to the Pope to decide whether or not to accept their resignation or to have them continue on in their office until they are 80. Typically in the case of Cardinals, the Pope will not accept their resignation at 75, but Pope Francis did go ahead and retire Cardinal Sarah at age 75, which was a move viewed by many within the Holy See that demonstrated Pope Francis' distaste for Cardinal Sarah. Sarah is a very engaging and is extremely well-liked prelate among Catholic faithful, though, which is why Pope John Paul II named him secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples in 2001. His age and the fact that Pope Francis elected to have him retire at age 75 are both strikes against him when it comes to voting in the Conclave.

Cardinal Matteo Zuppi (Italy, age 69, created Cardinal by Francis)
Cardinal Zuppi was one of Pope Francis' closest friends and associates during his papacy. He is definitely a progressive liberal like Pope Francis was, with virtually identical views to Francis on most major issues within the Catholic Church. That also would make him less likely for the papacy if "Always follow a fat pope with a skinny one" holds true with this Conclave. He notably supports the idea of priests potentially being allowed to marry, he has spoken in favor of the Church offering formal blessings to same-sex marriages, and he also has spoken out in favor of a change in the Church's position on Humanae Vitae and birth control. His ministry as a priest, Bishop and Cardinal has included a myriad of humanitarian outreach endeavors, and he is known for being a personable diplomat of the Church.

Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besunga (Congo, age 65, created Cardinal by Francis)
Cardinal Ambongo fits in with many of the Bishops and Cardinals from Africa as a conservative, although he has been hesitant to publicly offer much statement on many of the more controversial issues within the church (same-sex marriage, blessing of same-sex couples, ordained females, birth control, traditional Latin mass.) He has spoken about some of those issues on occasion, and although he has supported the Church's stance on admitting women to the deaconate, he has also stated that he isn't opposed to study the Church's stance on female deacons further - which many see as a lack of clarity or waffling on the issue. Ambongo has also been in favor of the Church moving further away from permitting the offering of traditional Latin mass, and has spoken outwardly about his support of efforts to focus on battling climate change. Congo, and much of Africa, has been one of the areas of the world that has seen the Catholic Church growing the most, and with Islamic jihadists also operating frequently within Congo, Ambongo has had to be a strong advocate for Catholicism, and his success is obvious in the growing number of Catholics in the country. Congo is one of the largest pockets of practicing Catholics in the continent, so his potential outreach as a Pope would be seen as a major show of support to those Catholics, even though Ambongo has expressed reluctance at times when mentioned as a possible frontrunner for the papacy. I still think there are a lot of European Cardinals, though, who still struggle to see the favor in electing an African Pope.

Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke (United States, age 76, created Cardinal by Benedict XVI)
Cardinal Burke is the most conservative Cardinal being mentioned as papabile, and is currently one of the most conservative Cardinals in entire College of Cardinals. If there is a Church teaching to take a personal stance on, Burke's is the conservative stance, essentially across the board. He was Archbishop of St. Louis prior to being elevated to Cardinal. He served as head of the Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura for six years (beginning prior to his Cardinalship) which is the top judicial authority within the Catholic Church, and he is considered to be one of the Church's foremost experts of Canon Law. Cardinal Burke often clashed with Pope Francis on the occasions where the Pope made statements in contrast to Dogma and Canon - which Pope Francis made a frequent habit of doing. The fact that Cardinal Burke is an American is definitely something going against Burke's election as Pope, as is the fact that 80% of the Cardinal Electors were elevated to Cardinal under Pope Francis.

Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson (Ghana, age 76, created Cardinal by John Paul II)
Cardinal Turkson was considered by many to be the most likely candidate for Pope heading into the 2013 Papal Conclave. Although many people consider him a conservative, as many of the African Cardinals tend to be, he has definitely leaned liberal on many issues, including the Church's stance on priests being able to marry and its approach with the LGBTQ community. His reluctance to give public answers regarding his stance on the possibility of ordaining women in the Church has also caused many conservatives to suspect add another check to the "liberal" side of his balance sheet. Cardinal Turkson spent 8 years as president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, and was the first to head the Vatican's Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development when it was created in 2017. He is very outspoken, but also extremely personable, and he has spent more than 22 years as a Cardinal, operating in and around the Vatican. His experience in the Roman Curia is well established, but like Cardinal Ambongo, Turkson has also made statements about questioning whether or not he would be ever desire to be Pope.

Cardinal Robert Prevost (United States, age 69, created Cardinal by Francis)
Cardinal Prevost has been a Cardinal since September 2023. He is Chicago born, and was ordained an Augustinian priest and was sent to serve in Peru, where he eventually became the chancellor of his local diocese. After that he left for Rome to earn his Canon Law degree in the Vatican and then returned to the US and soon became head of the Order of St. Augustine in North America. While he was in charge of the Augustinians, he had a fairly major scandal he stationed a priest that had been suspended from public ministry because of credible accusations of sexual abuse of minors in an Augustinian priory located around the street corner from a Catholic elementary school. In 2015 Pope Francis had Prevost installed as Bishop of Chiclayo, Peru where he served for 8 years before he was put in charge of the Dicastery for Bishops in 2023. With that position, he is in charge of the dicastery (department) in the Vatican that selects new Bishops around the world. He is considered to be a liberal-leaning moderate, having spoken out in strong support of synodality within the Church, and having expressed interest to increase the Church's outreach to the LGBTQ community and to approve the blessing of same-sex couples. He is also in favor of limiting traditional Latin mass, and has been conspicuously private about his opinions on ordaining women, allowing priests to marry.

Cardinal Cristóbal López Romero (Morocco, age 72, created Cardinal by Francis)
Cardinal Romero was born in Spain. At 11 he entered a school to begin studying for the priesthood, he took his first vows as a seminary novice when he was 16 and was ordained a priest in the order of Salesians of Don Bosco on his 27th birthday. Salesians focus their ministry on performing the spiritual and corporal works of mercy for the youth of the world, and especially the poor youth, and they also have a focus on educating young men for the priesthood. Romero his first 5 years as a priest serving in the slum neighborhoods of Barcelona, and then he was stationed in Paraguay for the next two decades where he eventually became provincial for the Salesians in the country. He was transferred to Morocco in 2003 to direct the Salesian order there, then to Bolivia, and then he was provincial of one of the two Salesian provinces in Spain for 3 years before Pope Francis installed him as Archbishop of Rabat, Morocco in 2017 and elevated him to Cardinal just less than 2 years later. Cardinal Romero is known for making himself immensely approachable to everyone, and with a degree in journalism, his knack for using the press to his advantage is seen as a major strength.  He has continued to be a vocal proponent of interfaith dialogue, and particularly of increasing dialogue between the Catholic Church and Muslims, which is something that has continued to lack since the Crusades in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries. He is considered to be a strong left-leaning progressive, especially for his views on pushing synodality within the Church, for limiting traditional Latin mass, and for extending communion to non-Catholics. Cardinal Romero is very "Francis like," and I think that puts him at a disadvantage for being elected in comparison to some others.

Cardinal Michael Czerny (Canada, age 78, created Cardinal by Francis)
Cardinal Czerny was born in Czechoslovakia to a father who survived the Nazi labor camps and a mother who survived both Nazi concentration camps and labor camps. His family fled to Canada when he was 2 years old. Czerny graduated from a Jesuit high school in Montreal and entered the Jesuit seminary the next year. He has a bachelors in classics and philosophy from Gonzaga and a PhD in interdisciplinary studies from the University of Chicago. He spent about a decade as a teacher, beginning while he was a Jesuit seminarian, and after that he helped co-found the Jesuit Centre for Social Faith & Justice in Toronto where he worked as its director for the next 10 years. In the early 1990s he went to San Salvador for two years to replace a Jesuit priest at the University of Central America as director of the university's Institute for Human Rights after the priest was murdered alongside 5 other Jesuits in an anti-Catholic attach in the Salvadoran Civil War. After that he served as the Secretary of Social Justice for the Jesuit Order in the Vatican for 10 years, followed by his founding of the African Jesuit AIDS Network, which he directed until being called to the Vatican to serve as the defacto assistant-director of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. He was elevated to Cardinal in 2019 and had continued serving in a myriad of roles in the social justice front. As a Jesuit, Cardinal Czerny has strong concerns for social justice, education, and ecology. He was a vocal supporter of Pope Francis in almost everything the Pope said and did, and Czerny's personal views on Catholicism are considered to be every bit as left-leaning, if not moreso than Pope Francis' views. I've heard/seen Czerny mentioned several times in papabile discussions, but I don't see it happening at all. There has only ever been one Pope from the Jesuits...Francis. I don't see the Cardinals following up the first with an immediate second. I also don't think the next Pope is likely to be a North American or South American, and I don't think they are going to choose someone quite as far left-leaning as Francis was.

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa (Israel, age 60, created Cardinal by Francis)
Cardinal Pizzaballa is Italian-born, and is widely considered to be the youngest papabile Cardinal. He was ordained at age 25 as a Franciscan Friar, he moved to the Holy Land a month after ordination, and has lived there ever since. Known for being extremely humble but is also considered one of the foremost Bible Scholars in the entire College of Cardinals. During Pope Francis' papacy, Francis would call and speak to Cardinal Pizzaballa almost daily. Cardinal Pizzaballa has spoken in support of traditional church teachings in regard to the blessing of same-sex couples and the church's position on divorce-remarriage, while he has also spoken in support of greater interfaith dialogue and increasing the role of women within the church. Pizzaballa is seen very much as a middle-of-the-road moderate, and something in me thinks that there is a good chance he may be the next Pope.

Some other Cardinals who's names mentioned who I don't see as realistic candidates (I've mentioned a few previously):

Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline (France, age 66) - Way too much like Pope Francis.

Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David (Philippines, age 66) - Way too much like Pope Francis.

Cardinal Mario Grech (Malta, age 68) - Way too much like Pope Francis.

Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich (Luxembourg, age 66) - Probably the most liberal Cardinal in the entire College of Cardinals. If you can take a liberal stance on anything in the church, he takes it. He wants broad-reaching reform in the Church that will enact change to virtually every avenue of Catholicism.

Cardinal Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi (Japan, age 66) - Way too much like Pope Francis. Also, the Catholic Church in Japan is shrinking to an embarrassingly small level - there are more Catholics in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati than there are in the entire country of Japan. Kikuchi's Cardinalship has seen his flock of faithful do nothing but shrink, and that's the opposite of what the Church is looking for.

Cardinal Gérald Lacroix (Canada, age 67) - Was named in a class action lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Quebec for allegedly touched a 17 year old female in the 1980s. The accuser never was named, and Lacroix vehemently denied allegations. He went so far as to hire multiple independent investigators to investigate the accusations. None of the investigations were able to come up with any information that could confirm or deny that they allegations took place. Even if Lacroix is 100% innocent of everything, I just don't see the Cardinals - in light of how wide-reaching the clergy abuse scandal was, and how fresh it all is in people's minds - would elect someone who was accused and has no way to fully disprove the accusations to be the ONE GUY in charge of the whole Catholic Church.

Cardinal Reinhard Marx (Germany, age 71) - Has openly questioned much of Catholic doctrine. He is leading a faction of the Catholic Church in Germany that is quite honestly taking steps in hard opposition to a lottttt of the Vatican's teachings. I could honestly see the entirety of that (very large) group of German Catholics going into complete schism with the Vatican before too long.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols (United Kingdom, age 79) - Too old. Plus the Catholic Church is shrinking into non-existence in most of the UK, and especially in England, where Cardinal Nichols is stationed.

Cardinal Marc Ouellet (Canada, age 80) - Too old.

Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn (Austria, age 80) - Too old.

Cardinal Angelo Scola (Italy, age 83) - Too old.

Cardinal Joseph Tobin (United States, age 72) - From the United States. Very down to earth and approachable with very liberal social views. Also one of Pope Francis' personal friends, which most seem to see as a negative in terms of electability due to the fact that the general consensus is that Cardinals will be looking to elect someone who is somewhat different from the previous Pope.

Conclave is set to begin May 7.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/conclave-to-elect-a-new-pope-will-start-on-may-7-as-cardinals-get-to-know-one-another/ar-AA1DKHoW?ocid=TobArticle

25 minutes ago, nkypete said:

Does the winner still have to name drop god?  Or is god truly on the losers side as well?