by: Anura Guruge
Just under a year ago I published my first papabili list -- under the heading 'Next Pope.'
Since then I have had over 18,000 views of that list. It does seem popular, particularly if the pope is in the news.
For the last 15 months I have been working on a handbook for the next papal election -- whenever it may come to be. The further out the better.
It is called 'The Next Pope' and is now available.
Please click here to visit the home page for this book.
My papabili list is a key component of this book. The first chapter, titled 'The Papabili' goes into the criteria I used to select my current top 10 in addition to providing biographies that highlight their qualifications.
While writing my 'Pope Names' book I had the fortune of getting to know Matt Kirkland, a talented artist and part-time papal historian.
Matt, though very busy, agreed to draw five sketches of my current top ten papabili for me. These sketches belong to Matt, and I am only using them here and in the book with his permission.
So here are five thumb-nail sketches from my papabili list, viz. Cardinals Scherer (Brazil), Antonelli (Italy), Ouellet (Canada), Napier (South Africa) and Vallini (Italy).
The thumbnails appear in the order of the names above. Please 'hover' over the thumbnail and the name of the cardinal will appear.
Please note that these images are subject to Matt's copyright.
Thank you, Matt. I love these sketches
