Chilean Cardinal Jorge Medina Estevez appears on the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica to announce, "Habemus papam" (We have a pope), and the name Joseph Ratzinger, in this April 19, 2005, file photo. (CNS file photo/Nancy Phelan Wiechec)
You know you do.
What you’ll want to do is bone up
on the Latin (accusative case) names of the possible candidates, compiled by
CNS in
this handy list.
After the cardinals elect a new
pope, and assuming he isn’t the elected, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, the senior
cardinal-deacon, will appear on the St. Peter’s Basilica balcony to make the
announcement in Latin (the official formula for the announcement is here).
The first indication of who the new pope is will be his first name—so, “Angelum”
for Angelo; “Franciscum” for Francis, Francisco, or Franc; “Timotheum” for
Timothy; etc.
Of course, the usefulness of this
list of Latin names will depend in part on who is chosen – if we all hear “Odilonem,”
it will immediately be clear that the cardinals have elected Cardinal Odilo
Pedro Scherer of Sao Paolo. If Cardinal Tauran announces “Ioannem,” on the
other hand, it could be one of nine different cardinals named John, Juan,
Giovanni, Sean, or Joao.
In that case, just sit tight and wait a few seconds
for the announcement of the cardinal last name, and his newly chosen papal
name.