The Next Pope

For John, BLUF:  At this point no one knows who will be the next Pope.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

The First Black Pope in 1500 years?  The New Yorker has an article that suggests it is possible.

According to the smart money, the odds favor the election of Ghana’s Cardinal Peter Turkson as the next Pope, the first from Africa since Pope Gelasius I over fifteen hundred years ago. In the intervening years, several African candidates have attracted interest (Benin’s Cardinal Gantin, in 1978, and Nigeria’s Cardinal Arinze, in 2005), but none has ever been a front-runner among the papabile. In fact, the term “black pope” traditionally refers to the head of the Jesuits, revealing how unlikely the prospect of an actual black pope was for most of the Church’s history.

I would like to draw attention to one of the links above, the odds on who will be elected, from the Web Site, Paddy Power, Ireland’s biggest bookmaker.

This will be an interesting Conclave.

Regards  —  Cliff