Edward Pentin’s List of 10 Papal Contenders You Should Know

[Michie]

From Rome to the Global South, the cardinals are preparing to elect a new pope — but history shows that the Holy Spirit often surprises.

VATICAN CITY — Predicting the next pope is, as one colleague once aptly put it, like throwing darts at a dartboard with a blindfold.

Although we have some idea who the prominent candidates are, knowing with any accuracy the cardinal who the members of the Sacred College will choose as the Successor of Peter is something of a fool’s errand.

Almost no Vaticanists, for example, had Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio on their lists in 2013. And the betting shops fare no better, with many giving some of the best odds for unlikely candidates or, in the case of this conclave, to cardinals over 80 who usually have the least chance of election.

This conclave will be especially hard to predict and could be lengthy as many of the cardinals come from the global south and are largely unknown.

Continued below.

Edward Pentin’s List of 10 Papal Contenders You Should Know

COMMENTARY: From Rome to the Global South, the cardinals are preparing to elect a new pope — but history shows that the Holy Spirit often surprises.

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[Bob Crowley]

The list is varied, and it will be interesting to see how it all pans out.

They range from the ultra-conservative Guinean Cardinal Sarah, the American Burke and the Dutch Eijk; the cautious Hungarian Erdo; Pietro Parolin (I sort of sense he might the one for what is is worth) who has a lot of Vatican state affairs experience but no pastoral experience; the "progressive" Italian Zuppi and Portuguese de Mendoca; Pizzabella who has a lot of experience in Jewish-Palestinian affairs (and is probably too type-cast for that reason): Grech from Malta who favours a female diaconate; and the American Perolin who spent years in Peru and had a close relationship with Francis.

It is obvious the magisterium do not all hold to a rigid interpretation of Catholic tradition. I expect some changes unless an ultra-conservative is chosen, and I think the Conclave will be wary about doing that, considering the trenchant criticism of some conservatives during Francis time as Pope.