Picking the pontiff: from top papal contenders to placing bets • FRANCE 24 English

The countdown is on for the conclave which begins at the Vatican tomorrow. Among the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, there is excitement in the air about who will be chosen to be the next pope. For more on their story, we can bring in Solange Muja in the who’s in the studio. Solange, great to see you. So, who’s going to be the next pontiff? Well, when it comes to picking a pope, uh all bets are really off. No one knows, including the cardinals. uh it is completely unpredictable even if there is quite a bit of speculation and even actual betting. I’ll get into the gambling aspect that dates back centuries in a second. Uh but uh first the mystery uh these proceedings are top secret. Uh divulging details about the conclave discussions is grounds for excommunication. However, there are some basic facts and things that we do know about who selects the next pope and who does not. Uh first the knots. There will be no women making the choice or even wielding strong influence over who is chosen. Again, women are still not allowed to have highlevel decision-making uh responsibilities in the church. There are over 650,000 nuns in the world and around 900 have assembled in Rome for this occasion, but they have no say or voting power or even presence in the room. Be you are a cardinal or a young uh sister. We are all together called to be protagonist to carry on the mission of the church all together as brothers and sisters in Christ and to walk together and so the sister have asked also you know to be better listened to. Now beyond excluding women cardinals who are over the age of 80 are also not allowed to vote. There are 117 cardinals who will be excluded because they are too old and two who are eligible but will not be present because of illness. So on Wednesday when the doors of the Sistine Chapel uh uh close and are sealed, there will be 133 cardinals present to vote. Their average age is 70 years old and three months. And this is where it gets interesting in regard to alliances and potentially how the church may uh be changing in the future. Most of these cardinals were named by Pope Francis or 108 of the 101 133. But that does not mean that all of these cardinals agree on key issues or are a solid group. What it does mean is that the conclave has become more international with around 70 nations now represented. In the previous conclave uh that that elected Pope Francis, 52% uh of the cardinals were from EU nations. It is now 39%. Italy remains the most uh represented country with 17 cardinals, but again they don’t all agree on the same issues. Uh a few of the top frontr runners or names that have been floated as real possibilities, they are Italian. Uh there’s Matteo Zupi who’s participated in peace talks around the world. There’s Pierre Batista uh Pizzabala. I absolutely adore his name. He was the patriarch of Jerusalem as well as the strongest frontr runner at least among the bookies. There’s Petro Perilin. He was the Vatican’s Secretary of State. And there hasn’t been an Italian pope in 47 years, which actually is a long time for Italy. Even if there is an Italian expression about all of the uncertainty that goes, he who enters the conclave as the pope, well, he leaves it as a cardinal. Okay. So, talk talk us through who about some of the other possible contenders from other nations. Well, any nation that has a cardinal in the room could have the honor of being the home country of the next pontiff. But again, this isn’t about a cardinal’s origins or his past work uh only. It is about his theological vision, his stances on the future direction of the church, his views on certain divisive subjects like LGBTQ plus rights, abortion, sex crimes committed by priests uh uh on women, children, and and other men. How to be strong on that against that. But geography could play a role in selecting uh one person out of the papabille or the eligible. Uh another one of the top contenders is Luis Antonio Taglay of the Philippines. He’s known as the Asian Francis because of his commitment to the social issues uh uh uh that that Pope Francis cared for uh as well as for migrants, but he’s staunchly against abortion rights and euthanasia. Picking him would also be a nod to the growth of the church in Asia. In the same vein, uh the next pope could also be from an African nation with Cardinal Turken uh of Ghana and Cardinal Abongo uh of the DRC uh both having their names floated as top possibilities and it has been 1500 years since there’s been a pope from the African continent. Does France have any cardinals in the running? It does and it has been since 999 when Gerber Doryak became Sylvester II that there was a French pope in Rome. Clemon IIIth uh he was elected uh uh in 1378 but he was based in Avenue. So it has been a while for France. This time there are five cardinals uh voting five French cardinals voting. There’s Christoph Pierre who was sent to the US uh by the Vatican. Uh Philip uh Barbara the Archbishop Emmeritus of Leon. He’s actually unlikely to be picked because of his legal record. He was convicted of failing to report the sex abuse of another priest. the sentence was overturned, but it is a safe uh pretty safe bet to say he won’t be the next pope. And then there are the cardinals Merti and Bastilo whose age he’s just 56. Well, that could be a disadvantage. And finally, of the French five, it’s Jean Mark Ain’s name that’s been making a lot of the top 10 lists. As Archbishop of Marles, he’s been praised for promoting dialogue between different faiths and different cultures. Nonetheless, the French cardinals, well, they’re staying mum like all of the others about the be behind the scenes pre-conclave talks. An idea of the different candidates? Of course. So, oh yeah, you want me to tell you right here in front of the cameras and microphones? Will it be a European pop? My eminence, it will be a papa. We’re gathering together. We’ll vote. And do you know in which chapel? He might be the future pope. Well, if he doesn’t come back to the dascese, you know what that means? It’s like the pools in football. Everyone wants their local team to win, but it’s the universal church, so it’s a bit different. So, there’s so much curiosity with with how the Vatican picks its pope with this whole conclave and the process. Uh, is betting on the conclave legal? Well, it really depends on where you are in the world. uh in regard to the canon’s rules or the Catholic Church’s laws. It was banned in 1591 when it became an excommunicable offense and gambling on the conclave was actually quite popular before that and has been uh in in the centuries since whether it is allowed or not. The church’s rules uh were thrown out in 1918. So technically it is not forbidden um that’s according to the church but it is looked down upon. As for nations, it depends. Uh in the US for example, it’s not considered part of the gambling norms like sports are. So it is not allowed. The UK and Ireland have a long history of people payable bets. Um and the economist for example has been tracking the everchanging odds. It’s it’s minuteby minute. Um they say that there’s actually been 50 times more wages and if you adjust for inflation this time than last time. Increasingly gamblers are betting online for the pope or for anything else. In Italy, it is not illegal uh per se, but it is something that’s not seen as something proper to do. So, instead, an online game called Fanta Papa has been gaining traction. It’s a makebelieve conclave where uh users get to pick 11 cardinals uh like with a football team as well as a captain, and they create a fantasy strategy. And young Italians, well, they’re loving it. This game is a really fun game to play with friends and have a laugh. Well, it might be a nice thing anyway to play down a little bit everything that happened after Pope Francis’s death, obviously. I found out about this online game and I thought I’d play because it’s a fun, youthful thing. And it even helps to involve young people in religion. Zupia as a captain. Yes. Personally, I like him. He’s progressive. However, bookies and betting platforms, well, they are notoriously and historically bad at actually predicting who the next pope will be. So, all bets really are off and we will just have to wait and see who is picked when that white smoke comes out of the Vatican. Clearly, all eyes will be on the Vatican for the next few days. Thank you very much for that.

In this edition of Entre Nous, as cardinals gather in the Vatican ahead of Wednesday’s conclave, we take a look at who picks the next pontiff and who does not. We dive into who the top contenders are to succeed Pope Francis and how there’s a centuries-old tradition of gambling, placing bets and speculating on who will be chosen as the next pope.
#pope #popefrancis #conclave

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6 comments

  6. How "holy" the vote is, is uncertain, but there certainly will be plenty of good old fashioned backroom political maneuvering. At least they aren't openly killing each other to be pope now days.

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