Who is the top competitor to be the next Pope? Expert weighing

The question that towering many thoughts around the world after the death of Pope Francis on Monday is who will be the next leader of the Roman Catholic Church.

The selection process will begin when all cardinals under the age of 80 who are eligible to participate are called to Rome to prepare for the secret conclave in the sistine chapel to choose the next whale. This meeting usually starts between 15 to 20 days after the death of the Pope.

While the way of conclave and how the group finally decided that the new Pope remained secret, experts were still considering who could be the front runner for the Papa.

Francis, who is the progressive leader of the church, has appointed around 80% of the cardinal who qualified to choose a new whale, according to Miles Pattenden, the Catholic Church historian at Oxford University. But, Pattenden told ABC News that it does not mean that the next whale will directly reflect the same values ​​as Francis.

“This is a mistake to think about [Francis’ cardinals] as a homogeneous block. Not all of them will share Francis’s views, “Pattenden told ABC News.” Some of them will be open about it. He appointed them because they represent important fields or factions in the church which according to him must be represented. The others may not be in harmony with all Francis’s views, but remain silent about it. Now he is no longer, we will see where their true position is. “

Every Catholic man who was baptized qualified to take Francis’s place, but Pattenden said Pietro Parolin, Cardinal Secretary of the State, and Luis Tagle, Archbishop of Manila in the Philippines, was the main runner.

Parolin, who “looks very on paper like he has to be a clear candidate for continuity,” has been a secretary of the State since August 2013 and is a “Vatican diplomat who is very experienced,” Petterden said.

“He has all the right credentials. The question is whether most cardinals want it or not,” Pattenden said.

Cristina Traina, professor of religious study at Fordham University in New York, said that Parolin is someone who is “extraordinary experienced in the way the internal work of the Vatican, but that can be calculated to him if they are interested in continuing Vatican reform.”

A similar candidate in “Charisma and Emphasis on Pastoral Mission” with Francis is Tagle, which was appointed by Pope Benedict as the Archbishop of Manila in 2011, said Pattenden.

“The disadvantage is that he might be a little young, he was only 67 years old,” Pattenden said. “It is unclear that he has the right administrative experience. If the cardinal is looking for someone to stabilize the ship and ensure that the Vatican remains sequential, maybe they want someone else.”

Although Francis “lifted a lot of cardinals with a general progressive view” and “it will be automatically enough they will choose one of their own, someone in Francis’s image,” Pattenden said there were still conservative candidates who could get recognition, including Cardinal Hungarian Peter Erdo, Cardinal Ghana Peter Turkson and Cardinal Guinianian Guiniian Guiniian Sur.

If the “more clearer runner does not order the majority attraction” during the selection process, Pattenden said Moderate Europe, including Bishop Bologna Matteo Zuppi, Archbishop Marseille Jean-Marc Aveline and Archbishop Malta Mario Grech, also had the potential to get consensus between conclusions.

Apart from whom his successor, Traina told ABC News that the new Papa will vary from Francis, because there are not many candidates who have their progressive attitude to be progressive but theological conservative.

The only two who according to Traina resembled Francis’s approach were Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouelett or Dutch Cardinal Willem Eijk.

“Substitutes have different skills from their predecessors, and that is not because people refuse their predecessor skills,” Traina said. “Not surprisingly, because there is a change, the question is, in which direction?”

ABC News Phoebe Natanson contributed to this report.