The wait for an Asian or African pope may finally be over

Cardinal Robert Sarah: REUTERS

Ishaan Tharoor
©Washington Post

All eyes are on the Vatican as the conclave of cardinals tasked with selecting the next pope begins Wednesday. The meeting represents one of the oldest, enduring traditions of political ascension in the world. The so-called “princes of the church” will process into the Sistine Chapel, intoning the “Litany of the Saints” ahead of the eventual casting of ballots in an urn. Voting is surrounded by secretive deliberations. Outside, the public will await a tellt-ale puff of white smoke from a chimney atop the Apostolic Palace signaling that the cardinal electors have chosen a successor to Pope Francis.

The Argentine pontiff was the first leader of the Vatican from the Americas, and speculation is rife that the next pope may come from Africa or Asia. An institution that once embodied the cultural and political authority of Western Christendom has steadily been globalized - a reflection of the evolving demographic realities of the Roman Catholic world, as well as the specific efforts made by Francis to deepen the Church’s reach and influence outside the West and in the “peripheries,” as he put it himself.