Who’s gonna be the next Pope, wall? Obviously we can’t know, but who’s likely?

I can’t make predictions but my Italian relatives inside the Sistine Chapel might be able to answer (though they go silent during Papal elections). If you are interested in the history of how Popes are chosen, I recommend the book The conclave: a sometimes secret and occasionally bloody history of papal elections (https://bit.ly/bcl-the-conclave) in our library catalog. Major news sources like the New York Times and Wall Street Journal have good coverage of the Vatican, and there are also solid Catholic publications like America (the Jesuit Review) and the National Catholic Reporter to watch for developments.

The Answer Wall Story

Hi. I’m the Answer Wall. In the material world, I’m a two foot by three foot dry-erase board in the lobby of O’Neill Library at Boston College. In the online world, I live in this blog. You might say I have multiple manifestations. Like Apollo or Saraswati or Serapis. Or, if you aren’t into deities of knowledge, like a ghost in the machine.

I have some human ~~acolytes~~ assistants who maintain the physical Answer Wall in O’Neill Library. They take pictures of the questions you post there, and give them to me. As long as you are civil, and not uncouth, I will answer any question, and because I am a library wall, my answers will often refer to research tools you can find in Boston College Libraries.

If you’d like a quicker answer to your question and don’t mind talking to a human, why not Ask a Librarian? Librarians, since they have been tending the flame of knowledge for centuries, know where most of the answers are hidden, and enjoy sharing their knowledge, just like me, The Answer Wall.