The election of a new pope is a complex process involving hundreds of cardinals that can stretch up to weeks on end. But the general public seems to have found its own way to show support for their pontiffs of choice.
As Pope Francis, 88, continues to battle health issues, people have flocked to online betting platforms like BetUS and Polymarket to place their wagers on his successor.
The pontiff has been out of the public eye for nearly two weeks after he was taken to a Rome hospital to receive treatment for double pneumonia. The Vatican said Thursday that the pope’s condition continued to improve, though his prognosis remains guarded.
On BetUS and Polymarket—which was earlier slammed for taking bets on the California fires as people lost their homes and lives—the favorites were Pietro Parolin and Pierbattista Pizzaballa from Italy and Luis Antonio Tagle from the Philippines.
Pietro Parolin
Parolin, 70, was appointed Vatican Secretary of State by Pope Francis in 2013. Before he assumed the role as the Vatican’s number two, he worked in the Holy See’s diplomatic service for three decades, with terms in Nigeria, Mexico, and Venezuela. The Vatican describes Parolin as an expert in the Middle East and Asia. It credits him with strengthening relations between the Holy See and Vietnam as well as helping reopen dialogue between Israel and Palestine.
In 2020, the pope stripped Parolin’s office of its power to independently manage money after Parolin figured in a financial scandal over a 350-million-euro investment in a London luxury building.
Pierbattista Pizzaballa
Pizzaballa, 59, was named Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem in 2020. He entered the Custody of the Holy Land in 1999, nine years after he moved to Jerusalem. Pizzaballa was appointed leader of the custody in 2004 and held the post for six years.
Luis Antonio Tagle
Tagle, 67, was appointed Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples in 2019, putting him at the helm of global efforts to disseminate Catholicism. He became Bishop of Imus in 2001 and Archbishop of Manila in 2011. Tagle was also named president of Caritas Internationalis, the umbrella organization for Catholic charities worldwide, in 2015. In 2022, Pope Francis fired the top leadership of the organization over low staff morale.
Betting on the fate of popes and the outcome of papal conclaves goes back thousands of years.
The practice became so popular that Pope Gregory XIV in 1591 forbade all bets related to the election of a new pope, the duration of a pontificate, or the creation of new cardinals, with a penalty of excommunication.
