Who will serve the servants of God?

Quote:

Will the Curia vote as a block or might this be a conclave where the Germans flex their muscles? Or will it simply follow the old Roman adage of a fat Pope following a skinny one? One thing is certain: there is no clear front-runner in this papal election.

One thing against an Italian pope is the fact that John Paul II pretty much finished the transformation of the office of bishop of Rome to an universal leader of the Catholics. One can say that being a bishop of Rome is a continually decreasing part of the job. And selecting an Italian now would be seen too much a conservative choice, a step back if not turning the back of the Church toward the world. And certainly we must remember that the reason Italians are so overpresented when it comes to popes is that since the 11th century the pope has been selected by those cardinals that can get to Rome to attend the conclave, who of course, for transportation reasons alone, were mostly Italians, and when an Italian was elected, he tended to make mostly other Italians cardinals. Nowadays the situation is different.

The exception to the rule of Italians are the times when the papacy was under control of powerful non-Italian states; from the 6th to the early 8th century the East Roman empire put men from the Greek speaking world to the papal throne and then the German Holy Roman Emperor Henry III(1017-1056, r. 1039-56) put a succession of Germans to the papal throne in the 1040s and 1050s -as he practically saved it from the Roman aristocracy - that had made the office of pope practically their heirloom - and started the development of increasing papal and Church power, which soon pitted his son Henry IV(1050-1106, r. 1056-1105) against the pope Gregory VII(c.1020/25-1085, r. 1072-85). And of course the were the French popes of the Avignon papacy(1305-1378).

So, I would be surprised if the next pope would be Italian.