Nigerian Born Cardinal Arinze To Become The Next Pope?

Francis Arinze of Nigeria, Peter Turkson of Ghana and Marc Ouellet of Canada were among the cardinals hotly tipped by bookmakers on Monday to take over from Pope Benedict XVI.

William Hill bookmakers named 80-year-old Arinze as their favourite to replace the outgoing Pope Benedict following Monday’s shock announcement of his resignation. Coral also tipped Arinze as the likeliest successor with odds of 7-4.


Irish bookmaker Paddy Power named Ouellet as the favourite with odds of 5-2, followed by Arinze at 3-1.

You may wish to know that during the 2005 conclave of the Vatican’s College of Cardinals that elected Benedict, Arinze was considered “papabile,” or a potential successor to the late John Paul II.

“When we opened betting last time around, in 2005, Francis Arinze was our favourite,” a William Hill spokesman told AFP.

“Also, when Ratzinger became pope, Arinze took over from him as cardinal bishop of Velletri-Segni (a Catholic diocese close to Rome) — it could be that he’ll follow in his footsteps again.”


We are curiously watching....