Cardinals don't campaign to be the next pope, but there are always those among them that are considered favorites or potential frontrunners to be named the next pontiff heading into the papal enclave.
Of course, those who get talked about as potential papal candidates going into the enclave rarely seem to be the ones who get elected.
These candidates, known as “papabile,” have what are regarded to be the qualities to be pope. But they are not the only ones who can be chosen. While any baptized Roman Catholic male is technically eligible, only cardinals have been selected since 1378.
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WATCH HEREHere is a list of the last non-cardinals to be elected as pope of the Roman Catholic Church:
- Pope Urban IV — 1261-1264
- Pope Gregory X — 1271-1276
- Pope Celestine V — 1294-1294
- Pope Clement V — 1305-1314
- Pope Urban V — 1362-1370
- Pope Urban VI — 1378-1389
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SIGN UP The election of a new pope underwent changes in the papal bull (a public decree from a pope) of 1058, written by Pope Nicholas II, which established the practice of having cardinal-bishops be the only ones responsible for electing the pope.
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There have been others from around that time period that skirted some of the rules when it came to being elected pope. For example, Pope Leo X was elected pope in 1513, years after his father (a member of the powerful Medici family of Florence) convinced his relative Pope Innocent VIII to make him a cardinal in 1489. Pope Leo had never served as a priest before becoming a cardinal at the age of 13.
