With stunning news out of Rome this morning that Pope Benedict XVI is resigning, the oddsmakers are already taking wages on who the next Pope will be. Paddy Power, a bookmaker in Ireland, has issued a list of potential candidates. Concluding the list is Bono, with a 1000 to 1 odds against him!
The world famous atheist and humanist Richard Dawkins actually has better odds than Bono at 666 to 1 (the precise number on those odds will not go unnoticed by those Christians who study the end times). Everyone else on the list is an official member of the Roman Catholic Church, including cardinals and archbishops..
Does Bono have a chance? Probably not, since the candidate has to be single. Still, the odds of Bono becoming Pope might be slightly better than U2 releasing an album in the next year!
Bono meeting Pope John Paul II in 1999
Bono is not a catholic priest, not a catholic bishop, not a catholic cardinal. So, not being a cardinal, he can’t be the next pope. Writer of this article is obviously not a catholic, or not knowing anything about canonical justice, otherwise he would have known that this question is a stupid one.
Ain’t that the truth. Praaaaaise Jeeeesus ! Lift ouuut that deeemon thought from thiiiis chiiild angel of mercy!
Actually, any Catholic male is legally eligible - not necessarily a priest, bishop, or cardinal. However, it’s customary for the cardinals to choose from among themselves.
The criteria for being coming Pope is that the candidate be a baptised Catholic. So that does include women. In fact Pope John Paul wanted to make Mother Teresa a Cardinal, she declined. Traditionally Cardinals gather and self select, but the only criteria technically is that the elected Pope be a baptised roman catholic. Unfortumnately Bono not being a roman catholic excludes him 🙂
Cool pic of the Pope trying on Bono’s glasses! Amazing!