Pope Francis I

As You Know, today marks the start of the election proceedings to choose the new Pope, leader of the world's 1.2 billion or so Catholics. The process is steeped in ceremony, tradition and secrecy and involves locking all Cardinals under the age of 80 (115 this time) into the Sistine Chapel.

They will remain inside the Chapel until such time as a new Pope is elected, with no communication with the outside world at all. Only a small group of Nuns are allowed in the Chapel with them to handle meals and such. Before entering the Chapel the Cardinals take an oath of secrecy in Latin, and conditions are so strict that state-of-the-art jamming technology has been used to keep the Cardinals in isolation.

Conditions aren't thought to be terribly glamorous. Until 2005, chamber pots were the norm.

Cardinals will first elect three of their number to oversee the entire process from within, then the first voting will begin beneath Michelangelo's "Last Judgement". Cardinals will write the name of their favoured candidate onto a ballot paper - taking care to mask their own handwriting - which will then be counted and burned.

If a single nominee has received a two-thirds majority (77 votes), he will be asked if he is willing to accept. If he says "yes", he becomes Pope. As the ballots are burned, white smoke emerges from a chimney on the Chapel roof to signify that a new Pope has been elected.

If the vote fails to achieve the needed majority, then black smoke is produced. On Tuesday, at about 19:45 local, time black smoke was seen, indicating that the first vote had failed to reach a decision.

From Wednesday, two votes will be held each morning and afternoon until a decision is made. The process can be quick or drawn out - the longest Conclave officially lasted for 33 months. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI was elected on the second day of the 2005 Conclave.

Although there has been a lot of talk about the first non-European Pope, there aren't considered to be any stand-out favourites, although there are suspected forerunners (known as the "papabile"). Benedict XVI was considered to be papabile, but his two predecessors were not.

The whole process has been surrounded by a variety of shitstorms of course, but the most relevant one to the election is the possible influence of the still-living Benedict XVI. A retired Pope is an unprecedented thing in the modern era and, although he is due to quietly see out his retirement in seclusion in the Vatican, there are questions about how much influence the man who appointed more than 60 of the 115 electors will inadvertently still have.

And let us pray that come it may (As come it will for a' that)

Meet the new boss.

Same as the old boss.

Schild und Schwert der Partei

So far my hope that somebody messed with the smoke-ingredients as a practical joke (green smoke, pink smoke, etc) has been disappointed.

"You can reply to this Message!"

Pink or purple smoke would be a stunning pro-LGBT rights practical joke.

edited 12th Mar '13 12:59:55 PM by Achaemenid

Schild und Schwert der Partei

Hey its the 21st Century...can we do rainbow smoke?

"You can reply to this Message!"

I keep reading this as "the Paypal Election Thread". >_>

edited 12th Mar '13 1:12:08 PM by DrunkGirlfriend

"I don't know how I do it. I'm like the Mr. Bean of sex." -Drunkscriblerian

I'm rooting for Peter.

Who is in serious contention?

Final Fantasy, Foreign Policy, and Bollywood. Helluva combo, that...

Turkson, Scherer, Oellet, Tagle, Arinze, Bertone (God help us), and Schoenbornn.

Any one of them is my bet.

Schild und Schwert der Partei

People have also been talking about Scola and O'Malley.

Difficult to say, really — personally, by what little I heard of his policies, I'd quite like O'Malley; but the Spirit will do whatever the Spirit will do.

edited 12th Mar '13 4:39:58 PM by Carciofus

But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.

I'm hoping for Turkman meself.

Go Peter.

I'm having to learn to pay the price

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_papabili_in_the_2013_papal_conclave

Just posting this here as an aid.

Final Fantasy, Foreign Policy, and Bollywood. Helluva combo, that...

Can anyone tell me why Scherer is considered to be the conservative candidate? He's conservative on social issues, but so are all the rest of them, and he at least seems somewhat receptive to progressive positions on economic issues. Also, he has bureaucratic experience, but he doesn't seem to be as implicated in clericalism as some of the others (i.e. he was not one of SNAP's "dirty dozen" for covering up child abuse.)

I've just heard from a number of places that "the conservatives are supporting Scherer, and the reformers are supporting Scola", which...makes absolutely no sense to me.

edited 12th Mar '13 7:55:58 PM by BokhuraBurnes

First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win.

I'm rooting for Tagle and Turkson.

I think the media is exaggerating the chances of Ouellet being picked. The man has pretty much said he'd hate to be the Pope.

I also admire O'Malley's beard.

Everything is Possible. But some things are more Probable than others. JEBAGEDDON 2016

O'Malley gets credit for this if nothing else. "At the time of his elevation into the College of Cardinals, he [O'Malley] joked that the scarlet robes that are customary for the "red hat" ceremony would be useful in the case he was invited to go quail hunting with Vice President Dick Cheney."

I will admit, O'Malley can be pretty funny.

I'm having to learn to pay the price

Oellet's brother is a sex offender as well. Though, of course, that does not have any bearing on him or his popeing ability, it might be considered a liability by the College.

Schild und Schwert der Partei

"[Scola]’s logic, in fact, seems to be that feminism is responsible for homosexuality, because the more women act like men, the more men are likely to want to have sex with other men"

The reformers are supporting this guy?

Anyway, I'm rooting for Peter Turkson, but I doubt the Church will pick an African. I think they're more likely to go for a Latin American, assuming the Europeans don't form ranks.

edited 13th Mar '13 2:48:24 AM by Ramidel

"so long as the Italians don't form ranks."

Fixed that for you I reckon that Cardinal Sarah could be a dark (NOT RACIST) horse candidate. He's young too, so he might get it when whoever the conclave elects carks it.

Speaking of which: "If I was a racist, which I'm not, I would say that the election of an African pope would be a darker reboot for the Pope franchise." - Charlie Brooker

EDIT: Should there be ads on the "Forum Topics" page? I recently renstalled Adblock, but have disabled it for TV Tropes (as I'm given to understand that TV Tropes relies on ads for funding), but I'm still not seeing any, and the wiki has them on every other page.

edited 13th Mar '13 3:45:15 AM by Achaemenid

Schild und Schwert der Partei

Keep in mind, that's the way in which someone who disagreed with Scola summarized his argument. I would guess that he'd consider that a misrepresentation of his position (but to be honest, I have not read Scola's works).

I doubt that nationality or ethnicity will play much of a role in these elections. If anything, if I understand the matter correctly, the main split at the moment is between the Cardinals who mostly work in the Curia and in the ones who instead mostly work outside of it. By the way, this is also one of the main differences between the two Italian "candidates", Bertone and Scola.

edited 13th Mar '13 3:23:39 AM by Carciofus

But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.

In other words, the divides between the Cardinals are along Doctrinal, not Geographic lines?

Interestingly, there is the Prophecy of the Popes which may surround this Election; according to the Prophecy, the next Pope may be final Pope before The End of the World as We Know It.

edited 13th Mar '13 4:25:55 AM by Greenmantle

Keep Rolling On

Only if he calls himself Peter.

"Yup. That tasted purple."

Not so much doctrinal as organizational, as far as I heard (but this is just hearsay and so on, and it may well be entirely incorrect). Some would like to centralize further the organizational structure of the Church, while others would prefer to decentralize it.

Really, from a doctrinal point of view I doubt that there is any substantial difference between the Cardinals (except perhaps with respect to some arcane issues of high theology). There may be differences of focus, in that some consider some issues more important than others: but for example, I really doubt that any potential Pope would, let's say, be favorable to female priesthood.

People who hold controversial positions on this issue, or on similar ones, did not get made Cardinal to begin with.

edited 13th Mar '13 5:18:14 AM by Carciofus

But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.

The Onion's unique take on the Conclave.

edited 13th Mar '13 6:44:17 AM by Achaemenid

Schild und Schwert der Partei

Sorry, dude, link not working.