After Pope Francis’s funeral was held over the weekend, attention has now turned to the papal conclave to choose the next pope. If you’re Catholic—or if you recently watched Conclave—you might be hedging your bets on who next will be seated at the Vatican.
While the process usually happens behind closed doors, one TikTok user has created a “Fantasy Pope League,” in a similar style to fantasy football, an online game in which players collect points based on how real-life footballers perform each week, allowing people to play along at home and win points based off the real-life conclave.
“There are 10 times the number of people in this sweepstake as there are cardinals in the Catholic Church,” says @itismaxhooray. “Making it bigger and therefore more legitimate than the real conclave.”
Although sign-ups have now closed, those playing along will be assigned a cardinal via sweepstake from the College of Cardinals. “If they do well in the voting, you do well in the pope league,” @itismaxhooray explains. Players must also answer extra questions when they sign up to score “pope points,” which apparently will prove vital when it comes to the final leaderboard. There may even be a prize.
The original post has more than 100,000 views at the time of writing and reportedly saw 2,000 sign-ups on its first day. “I’m a normal girl who can be trusted not to get too intense about the fantasy pope league,” one person commented. “Immediately signed up,” wrote another. “15 years of Catholic school have prepared me for this.” Cardinals are now on their way to everyone who registered.
Today, the Vatican announced May 7 as the start date for the official conclave. The last two conclaves, held in 2005 to elect Pope Benedict XVI and in 2013 to elect Pope Francis, each lasted two days. Currently, there are 135 cardinals eligible to participate.
“My cardinal is 40:1 according to Oddschecker, not awful,” one player commented. “Just me and 99-year-old Angelo Acerbi against the world,” wrote another.
