Even though cardinals don’t campaign for the job, there are always front-runners going into a conclave to choose the next pope. These candidates, known as “papabile,” have what are regarded to be the qualities to be pope. While any baptized Roman Catholic male is eligible, only cardinals have been selected since 1378. The winner must receive at least two-thirds of the vote from those cardinals who are under age 80 and thus eligible to participate. The sacred and secretive process is no popularity contest, but rather considered to be the divinely inspired election of Christ’s Vicar on Earth by the princes of the church.
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