Who is going to be the next Pope

[Viviennemary]

The Conclave starts today. I'm quite interested to see who will be the successor to Francis.

Seems Cardinal Parolin is the favourite. He's Italian. I hope its not him. Very conventional knows the ropes. Bit of a boring choice.

Cardinal Tagle from the Philippines. Now that would be a lot more interesting. There is a huge Catholic population there. He's second favourite.

Then Cardinal Turkson from Ghana I think. Now that will be really interesting. I think a good thing.

Then Cardinal Zuppi another Italian. Again boring. We need somebody to make a mark but maybe not too big a one.

Anyone got an opinion on this.

Sorry I'll behave now.

Maybe they'll elect that 45 year old from Australia
That would be a bit different.

Always room for a little mirth 😁

Even more concerning is "Tie-front tops - are they still in style?"(Style and Beauty board)

I'm hoping there's a Theodore. Sadly I think it would be III rather than II which we really need for Papal Bingo.

The (Greek) Orthodox Pope's Papacy extends to just Africa, so he isn't a global head - there's the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople who is, sort of. Images of two Theodores from Wikipedia.

My RC gran is following this like it is the Grand National.

I like the idea of Tagle most…

I put a bet on Robert Sarah. I think they’ll be heading in a conservative direction, like the rest of the world.

I feel like the bingo would be better if those guys were called Alvin and Simon. 😂

He’s British! He was born in Crosby..

There are quite a lot of rules about food during Conclave. Food is more school dinner than haut cuisine (although obviously Italian school).
DCs were asking questions so we googled food, beds and toilets. I have practical kids.

Well, he's definitely a trad and more liberal Catholics would be very disappointed for sure...

What time are they back in Conclave tomorrow? I think 10.30 Italian time?

I think Tagle

Sarah or any of the hard core traditionalists would be so bad for the Global South…..

I reckon we’re due a Leo.

Also not keen on Sarah. Listened to his voice on the Hallow app over Lent. Would send an insomniac to sleep - not in a good way
Tagle is interesting

Do we know what actually happens in the conclave? Not the smoke and votes, but what happens in between the votes. Do some of them put themselves forward and make speeches? Or are nominated by others? Or do they mill around and chat informally, making a case for themself or someone else, or just sussing out who is voting for who?

A bit of all of that I think.

4 rounds of voting today, so a lot of chimney watch going on!

Good explainer on what happens in a Conclave here https://ewtn.co.uk/article-cna-explains-what-is-a-conclave-and-how-does-it-work/

Also

Exciting stuff!

By ‘traditional’ do people primarily mean more homophobic and anti contraception/abortion than other candidates? Or something else?

That’s the least bad thing about him!

Oi hands off. St Gobnait is the patroness of bees round here.

Having read Conclave recently, I'm kind of assuming that Robert Harris has got his facts right. It seems to be a bit of all of the above.

The fascinating thing is that we have no idea how last night's vote went, there might already be two or three obvious candidates that they are starting to whittle down - and many mentioned here already ruled out. And we'll never know.
If they weren't so anti-women, I'd have a lot more time for this process.

I think Tagle is a classic situation of "go in a pope, come out a cardinal." I think they won't go for Francis II - if they were i think we'd have had white smoke yesterday.

Erdo, the Hungarian guy maybe. But I have a sneaky suspicion they'll consider the Yank who worked abroad his whole career. US is a huge market and the church needs money.