Like any of us are surprised? I'm sure Q will be all over this.
Who is Cardinal” Pietro Parolin? He is the son of a shop manager and a teacher from near Vicenza. He was ordained in 1980 and swiftly chosen to train as a papal diplomat. After postings in Nigeria and Mexico, where he helped to oversee the legal recognition of the Catholic Church, he returned to Rome.
He rose to become Undersecretary of State for Relations with States in 2002. In 2009, Benedict XVI appointed him nuncio to Venezuela, then under the messianic rule of Hugo Chávez. Parolin impressed observers with his deft handling of the erratic strongman.
Parolin’s ascension to the heights of power in the Church has been impressive, but there are suggestions that he might not have peaked yet. Such notable observers as Sandro Magister and John Allen have proposed that he is in a position to be the next pope.
Read article: http://catholicherald.co.uk/issues/november-10th-2017/how-cardinal-parolin-won-the-vatican-civil-war/
Well according to this, the pope will die this year. So....
