Catholic priesthood remains closed to women, thus there will likely never be a women pope as the pope is selected from current cardinals.
The majority of Catholics now are in the Southern Hemisphere so it would make the most sense to choose an African or Latin American cardinal to become the next pope,** but I doubt that will ever happen.** The European lobby is too strong in the Vatican. Just like the chances of ever seeing an American pope are next to nil.
Surprise, even I did not anticipate somebody from Latin America to become the pope, but feel happy. I would want the next pope to be from India :)
• He likes to travel by bus.
• He has lived for more than 50 years with one functioning lung. He had the other removed as a young man because of infection.
• He is the son of an Italian railway worker.
• He trained as a chemist.
• He is the first non-European pope in the modern era.
• He claims that adoption by homosexuals is a form of discrimination against children but believes that condoms “can be permissible” to prevent infection. • In 2001 he washed and kissed the feet of Aids patients in a hospice.
• He speaks fluent Italian, as well as Spanish and German.
• Until now he has been living in a small flat, eschewing a formal bishop’s residence.
• He told Argentinians not to travel to Rome to celebrate if he was appointed but to give their money to the poor instead.
• He is believed to have been the runner-up in the last papal conclave in 2005.
• He has co-written a book, in Spanish, called Sobre el Cielo y la Tierra (On Heaven and Earth).
• Though conservative on church doctrine, he has criticised priests who refuse to baptise babies born to single mothers."