Who will be the next pope? Leading candidates who could succeed Francis
As Vatican experts gather in Rome to issue their lists of papabili, or strong candidates to run the Catholic Church, it is worth remembering that they are usually wrong.
Call it divine will, call it unpredictable cardinals, but what goes on inside the Sistine Chapel before the white smoke emerges often upsets the odds and hands the role to an outsider.
• Conclave: a visual guide
White smoke from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel will signify that a new pope has been elected
GREGORIO BORGIA/AP
The Guinean cardinal Robert Sarah went into the 2013 conclave tipped as a strong contender, only for that billing to apparently crush his chances, proving the Roman expression that 'he who enters a conclave as Pope exits as a cardinal'.
No one had the Argentine
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