UNITED KINGDOM
NBC News
By Sohel Uddin, Producer, NBC News
LONDON – With Pope Benedict XVI set to step down on Wednesday, questions are swirling over what’s next for the soon-to-be ex-pontiff and who will be chosen as the next leader of the Catholic Church.
“There is a tendency of the electors in a conclave to choose somebody who is unlike the predecessor,” papal historian Michael Walsh said. “If you are not going to elect an Italian necessarily, then I don’t think there is any problem about whether he comes from Africa or from Asia or from America.”
Walsh added that the cardinals would be more likely to choose an “extrovert … who relates much more easily to the people than cardinal Ratzinger did.”
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