Preparations for the election of a new pope are underway, and the outcome is more uncertain than ever before, with many of the cardinals who will participate in the conclave for the first time.
The conclave that will elect a new pope involves 135 cardinals who will gather in the Sistine Chapel next week to choose a successor to Pope Francis, writes The Guardian.
A number of the cardinals who will vote were appointed to the conclave by the pope himself over the past 12 years, and 20 officials only gained the title of cardinal in December last year.
Many had never met each other before.
Before the official start of the conclave, talks and lobbying are underway in the corridors, dining rooms and gardens of the Vatican, writes the Guardian.
Vatican insiders say more than 20 cardinals have been identified as possible candidates for pontiff.
However, the number of those who qualify as main candidates who make it through multiple rounds of voting is small.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the real name of Pope Francis, was not considered one of the candidates in 2013, but was nevertheless elected head of the Roman Catholic Church at the end of the vote, the Guardian reminds us.
Among the cardinals expected to support Pope Francis' conservative successor are Raymond Burke, an American bishop who is a supporter of President Donald Trump, as well as German Cardinal Gerhard Mueller.
According to the Guardian, the camp that will support the progressive candidate includes Cardinals Jean-Claude Hollerich of Luxembourg, Timothy Radcliffe of England, and Michael Czerny of Canada.
Pope Francis selected about a hundred cardinals for the conclave, and he sought to have them come from very small Catholic communities such as Iran, Algeria, and Mongolia.
He also worked to lower the age limit for the election of cardinals, so that seven of those appointed in December were under 60.
In 2013, more than half of the cardinals in the conclave were from Europe, and now that percentage has dropped to 39 percent, while 18 percent are from Asia, 18 percent are also from Latin America and the Caribbean, and 12 percent are from sub-Saharan Africa, Tanjug reports.
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