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He's probably too old now, but for a while I wondered whether Filoni might be a dark horse papabile. Former sostituto and former propaganda fide head—not a bad resume. And people say the cardinals may want an Italian. I don't really understand the internal politics beyond that, though.

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I'll be honest, (and just in the pure realm of speculation) His Holiness was elected Pope at 76. He's already been Pope for about to be 12 years. The overall average (That's taking in a significant portion of time, granted) is 7 years. But JPII became Pope at 58, reigned for 26 years. Benedict was actually 78 and if he didn't end up deciding to resign would've been Pope for 17 years. My rather circular point here is I do believe being elected between the ages of 76-80 is going to be the new norm. I think Filoni is a very good guess if the preference is for an Italian, again speaking entirely hypothetically. It's always the name you've never heard. (Benedict being the singular exception in recent memory)

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I had forgotten that Benedict was elected at 78.

OK, I clearly need to go out there and tweet about my Filoni prediction so that I can look like a genius when it happens.

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Filoni is STILL on my dark horse list. He is an experienced diplomat, not too much tp the left or right, well respected. He'd make an excellent dean.

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