Top 25 Pope Candidates

The Papal Conclave begins in just two days. Beginning on March 12, the College of Cardinals select a new Pontiff. It looks like a wide open field....but it always does. There's been a lot of talk that the next Pope will not come from a country which is regarded as a SUPERPOWER. This has always been true.

My prediction is that the next Pope will be in his 60s and that he will be difficult for English speaking people to understand....even when he is speaking English. Here's your top 25 with their age and probable odds from paddypower.com, an on-line betting site. .....

 1. Cardinal Angelo Scola, Italy (71) — 2/1
 2. Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, Honduras (70) — 33/1
 3. Cardinal Christoph Schonborn, Austria (68) — 12/1
 4. Cardinal Peter Turkson, Ghana (64) — 4/1
 5. Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Canada (68) — 10/1
 6. Cardinal Juan Cipriani Thorne, Peru (69) 80/1
 7. Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, Italy (70) — 20/1
 8. Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, Argentina (69) —  20/1
 9. Cardinal Odilo Pedro Scherer, Brazil (63) —  7/1
10. Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Argentina (76) — 50/1
11. Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, Italy (70) — 12/1
12. Cardinal Francis Arinze, Nigeria (80) — 40/1
13. Cardinal Timothy Dolan, USA (63) — 20/1 
14. Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, Philippines (55) — 20/1
15. Cardinal Seán Patrick O’Malley, USA (68) — 33/1
16. Cardinal Dominik Duka, Czech Republic (69) — 200/1
17. Cardinal Giuseppe Betori, Italy (66) — 100/1
18. Cardinal Donald Wuerl, USA (72) — 150/1
19. Cardinal Peter Erdo, Hungary (60) — 18/1
20. Cardinal Wilfried Napier, South Africa (71) — 33/1 
21. Cardinal George Pell, Australia (71) — 80/1
22. Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, Sri Lanka (65) — 80/1
23. Cardinal Robert Sarah, Guinea (67) — 80/1
24. Cardinal Jaime Ortega, Cuba (76) 125/1
25. Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, Dublin (67) 125/1