Thousands of Italian people play Fantapapa to select next pope

On Wednesday, the College of Cardinals will be restricted to the Sistine Chapel to select the next pope. It is known as the Conclave, which means "with key" in Latin, and it requires more than a hundred cardinal electors and several voting rounds to choose the next pope. Seventy-five thousand users have voted in the web game Fantapapa, which is a form of Catholic fantasy football.  

Players put together a group of candidates they believe have the best chance of winning. "You must select 11 cardinals," Pietro Pace, co-creator of Fantapapa, told Euro News, "the ones you believe are the most papal." The cardinal you believe has the most chance of being chosen as pope is your captain, while the one you believe has the lowest chance is assigned as goalkeeper. In a sense, this web-based fantasy football game is a throwback to a more traditional papal selection process.  

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Cardinal Matteo Zuppi is likely to become the next pope in the game

Before the Conclave's decision-making process was conducted in a sealed room, popes were chosen by an election that was open to all Roman residents. This makes sense considering the position's significance and the associated power. In the game, you can select the main man as a captain, and the log shot gets the goalkeeper spot. Currently, fan no. 1 to become pope is Cardinal Matteo Zuppi from Bologna. Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle are also behind him.

"We know that the religious hierarchies are part of the power in this country and also, let's say, at an international level, so it is a historic event and it seemed interesting to us to take it from a light-hearted side, but also based on real data," Maruo Vanetti, one of the co-creators of Fantapapa game said.

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