Cardinals from Canada, Nigeria and Ghana are among the leading candidates to succeed Benedict XVI as pope, according to bookmakers’ odds.
Cardinal Marc Ouellet, 68, is the favorite at Paddy Power Plc at 5-2, meaning a 2-euro ($2.70) winning bet would win a 5- euro profit. The Dublin-based bookmaker is offering Nigeria’s Francis Arinze, 80, and Peter Turkson, 64, of Ghana at 7-2. Argentina’s Leonardo Sandri, 69, is at 5-1. Turkson was previously rated as favorite.
Enlarge image Ghanian Cardinal Peter Turkson
Ghanian Cardinal Peter Turkson is the favorite to become pope after Benedict XVI resigns at the end of the month, according to Paddy Power Plc. Photographer: Gregorio Borgia/AP
The surprise resignation may reopen rifts within the church as pressure builds to name a pope from the developing world where Catholicism is growing, offsetting declines in Europe and the U.S. Turkson and Arinze are also among the favorites at Ladbroke Plc, according to a message posted earlier on the bookmaker’s Twitter account.
Paddy Power is also offering odds of 6-4 that the next pontiff will be Italian, with an African at 2-1 and a Central or South American at 10-3. The German-born Pope Benedict, previously Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, become the 265th leader of the Catholic Church after succeeding John Paul II of Poland. John Paul was the first non-Italian pope since Adrian VI in the 16th century.
The Italian candidate on the shortest odds at Paddy Power is Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, at 6-1.
‘Advanced Age’
A traditionalist, Benedict became pope after spending a quarter century as the enforcer of doctrine in an office formerly known as the Inquisition.
“After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry,” the pontiff said today.
The new pope will be chosen through a conclave, a special gathering of cardinals who are sequestered in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican until they agree on a successor. Pope Benedict will have no role in choosing his successor, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said at a news conference in Rome. He will initially retire to his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo before transferring to live in a convent.
