Not Officially Sanctioned

Now that the actual voting in the conclave is under way, The Wall Street Journal is giving front-page coverage to it, and I would commend their coverage to you (it seems to be available without subscription).

They have caught on to some of the less “sanctioned” activities, such as the blatant campaigning for the Ghana’s Cardinal Peter Turkson (who recently put together “a proposal to reform the international financial system by creating a Global Public Authority and a Global Bank that consider the interest of all developing countries”). Turkson is also named “Peter” which should keep the conspiracy theorists happy.

This article highlights the gambling that is taking place surrounding the conclave:

A throng of prognosticators have been following Mr. Rauen's lead in turning to bracketology to handicap the papal race. Some have used odds set in Las Vegas, the U.K. and elsewhere as a guide for populating the brackets.

A group at Duquesne, a Catholic University in Pittsburgh, launched a bracket challenge for students, with the winner to receive a $100 gift card.

The Religion News Service has created a "Sweet Sistine" game that uses an interactive tool allowing users to see how thousands of players voted in the various rounds.

Cari Donaldson, a 37-year-old freelance writer who home-schools four of her six children, created a bracket of 64 past pontiffs in order to pick the best pope ever. She sees it as a way to assist her study of religion and history.

"My knowledge of papal history was embarrassingly inadequate," said Ms. Donaldson, who published the bracket on a Catholic blog.

Vatican watchers, passionate Catholics and history buffs aren't the only ones keeping an eye on the goings on at the Vatican. Organizers of the Rome Marathon, scheduled for Sunday, have contingency plans should there be a papal enthronement the morning of the race. If there is, they will delay the start time.

Generally, the rule is, if you are papabile going into the conclave, you will be disappointed coming out.

[NCR has also published the odds: “As of March 8, their odds place Cardinal Angelo Scola (3-1) as the favorite, after Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana (7-2) had held the spot for more than a week. Out of the gate, Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet stood as the pack leader (5-2, on Feb. 11; currently 10-1).”]