There Are 3 Frontrunners For The Pope - Here's How Much Support They May Already Have
A report from superstar vatican reporter Andrea Tornielli has dish on who the frontrunners are right now. Remember, the voting starts Tuesday.
There seems to be one established certainty. Already as of tomorrow evening, when the 115 voters will shut themselves in the Sistine Chapel for the election, a fair number of votes (some mentioned 35, others 40) should go to the Archbishop of Milan, Angelo Scola, who has the support of various European cardinals and a few Americans. If he is elected, the papacy will become Italian again, thirty-five years after the election of John Paul I. Another candidate who should gather a fair amount of consensus is the Archbishop of São Paulo, Odilo Pedro Scherer, a Brazilian with a long experience in the Curia. Unconfirmed reports on the eve of the Conclave - which of course need to be taken with a pinch of salt – suggest the Brazilian could get 25 votes. A third candidate who might stand out from the beginning is the Canadian Marc Ouellet, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops who is believed to be able to draw to himself twelve votes from South America and the United States.
Meanwhile, we're likely to get our first sight of "smoke" at 1 PM ET tomorrow. And it's likely to be black, suggesting that no candidate will get the requisite 2/3 of votes on the first day.