Pope predictions

Who will be the next Pope?

I don't know, only God knows the answer to that question at the moment. Media speculation seems to have swung from Card. Arinze to Card. Ratzinger in the past few days, not that I think media speculation will indicate the result of the conclave. I would be quite happy with either of those two, who I would expect both stand reasonable chances.

My pick for a "surprise" pope would be George Cardinal Pell of Sydney, Austalia. At 64 he is a little on the young side for a papabile, but I think he is worth considering, certainly he is the only native anglophone with any chance (unless the Holy Spirit has a VERY big surprise in store for us). Card. Pell has studied in Cambridge, Oxford, Melbourne (Monash) and Rome (Urbanium). He has been a Cardinal only a short time, but has been a bishop since 1987 and Archbishop since 1996. He was entusted by our late Holy Father to serve as chairman of the Vox Clara commission looking into the English translation of the Mass. He has shown himself to be a man of dignity as when he was (falsely) acused of sexual abuse he stood down as archbishop without delay and waited patiently and prayerfully for the judicial enquiry to clear him.

That's just my five cents worth. We'll have wait till next week to see what the guy upstairs has to say.