A well-liked saying in Vatican circles is that in case you “enter a conclave as pope, you leave as a cardinal.” It implies the sacred and secretive course of is not any reputation contest or marketing campaign, however moderately the divinely impressed election of Christ’s Vicar on Earth by the princes of the church. Nonetheless, there are at all times front-runners, often known as “papabile,” who’ve at the least a few of the qualities thought of essential to be pope — very like these depicted in final 12 months’s Oscar-nominated movie “Conclave.” Any baptized Catholic male is eligible, although solely cardinals have…
