The Next Pope

Two articles on the conclave and leading candidates for pope.

NPR has a long, detailed article from America, the catholic weekly magazine on the papal transition. Down near the bottom is Father Thomas Reese' excellent guide on the demographics of the man who might be elected.

From Fr. Thomas Reese and John Allen, Rome correspondent of the National Catholic Reporter, via NPR a list of the potential front-runners for the papacy.

I don't have any special insight into conclaves and this one I think might be harder to predict as it will be the first in 26 years with the vast, vast majority of voting cardinals 'new' to the process. The fact that John Paul II appointed 114 of the 117 eligible electors makes it extremely likely that the new pope will be a close theological 'brother' of JPII. The press seems a bit infatuated with the idea of Arinze or Dias or possibly a Latin will be the first Third World pope. My guess- a charistmatic Western European who might reverse the decline of the church in Old Europe.