Cardinal Prepares For Second Day Of Conclave, Potential Candidates Apart From Parolin And Tagle

Illustrations of the Cardinals preparing to enter the Sistene Chapel for the Pope's election. (Flickr: Jeffrey Bruno)

The cardinal who owns voices from various parts of the world prepares for the second day of the conclave to elect a new Pope, after black smoke came out of the Sistina Chapel on Tuesday, signaling no Pope has yet been elected.

Konklaf this time is the largest and most geographically diverse in the history of the election of 1.4 billion Catholics in the world.

No Pope in modern times was elected on the first day conclave. On the second day, four rounds of voting could take place.

According to Reuters on May 8, 133 cardinals from 70 countries have followed conclavely this time, up from the previous 115 cardinals from 48 countries in the 2013 conclave, reflecting the achievements of the late Pope Francis' efforts to expand the reach of the Church during his 12 leadership.

In fact, there are currently 135 cardinals under the age of 80 and eligible to vote in the conclave of 71 countries, quoted from the Associated Press.

However, the two cardinals officially notified the Vatican's Holy See that they could not attend for health reasons, bringing the number of cardinals who would enter the Sistina Chapel to 133 people.

There are no obvious favorites in this conclave, although Cardinal Pietro Parolin of Italy and Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of the Philippines are considered strong candidates.

The majority of two-thirds is needed to be whaled, meaning if the number of electors remains 133, the winner must get 89 votes.

Other potential "paffilitary" candidates (the Pope's mandate in Italian) are Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline of France, Cardinal Peter Erdo of Hungary, Cardinal Robert Prevost of America, and Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa of Italy.

The countries with the most electoral votes include Italy (17 electors), the United States (10), Brazil (7), France and Spain (5 each), as well as Argentina, Canada, India, Poland and Portugal (4 each).

As for the regional details of 135 electoral cardinals according to Vatican data, Europe (53 electoral, one electoral from Spain confirmed their absence, bringing the number to 52), Asia, including the Middle East (23), Africa (18), with one electoral from Kenya confirming the absence so that the numbers are 17), South America (17), North America (16; consisting of 10 United States, 4 Canada and 2 Mexico), Central America (4), Oceania (4; 1 each from Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Tonga).

"We have to look at the five continents," said Archbishop of Bogota, Colombia Cardinal Luis Rueda Apario as cardinals gather before the conclave, Monday.

"Roh Kudus saw everything," he continued.

In recent days, they have given a different assessment of what they seek from the next Pope, after a relatively liberal papality characterized by fierce divisions between the traditionalists and the modernists.

While some have urged that the late Pope Francis' vision of greater openness and reforms be continued, others want to turn back time and embrace tradition. Many say they want more predictable and measurable papalities.

"We support whoever is the best person," said Cardinal William Goh of Singapore.

"We don't choose whales based on continent, race, or language," he added.