From the Author:
Anura Guruge
From the Back Cover:
Papal elections are easily the oldest surviving of electoral processes.
The current sequestered form, i.e., within a conclave, dates back, uninterrupted, to 1294.
The next election will be the seventy-fourth in this sequence. Historical longevity, with its inevitable repertoire of accumulated drama, though enthralling, is but just one of the facets that make papal elections so captivating. The dignified pomp as red-clad cardinals solemnly congregate in Rome, the obstinate
obfuscation as to who is in the running to be the next pope, and the eagerly awaited color-coded smoke signals [sfumata] are matchless and enduring. Even the urn that serves as the ballot box is a bona fide work of art by a well known Italian sculptor, in silver and gilded bronze, with an abstract depiction of the
'Good Shepherd' gracing the top of the tilting lid.
Thus, to say that papal elections are unique is an understatement of considerable magnitude,
hence, the potential to fascinate. That is where 'The Next Pope' comes in. It deals, unstintingly, with the traditions, the norms, the papabili, the rituals, the dynamics, the politics, the mechanics, the laws, the precedents and the pertinent history of papal elections.
This handbook will, therefore, both stoke and satisfy the reader's fascination as to how the next pope will come to be elected.
By the author of 'Popes and the Tale of Their Names' and the publisher of popes-and-papacy.com.
This book will make the reader an expert when it comes to the next papal election,
whenever that may be. Rather than relying on the media for insights and intrigues,
the reader can now be a cognoscenti with an insightful appreciation of what has to happen in Rome.
Updates for this book will be available at popes-and-papacy.com.
The author, Anura Guruge, is a professional writer and of late a conscientious papal historian. His earlier work was devoted to technology; he was an authority on IBM networking for two decades. This is his eighth book, the second on popes.
Matt Kirkland of San Diego, California provided the sketches of the five papabili cardinals that appear in Chapter I. He is a designer who develops websites and consumer products. He has drawn all of the popes.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.