[FreeHat]

It's an oddity (or perhaps not) that, even though approximately 80% of Roman Catholics live outside of Europe, there has never been (to my knowledge) a non Caucasian Pope, and only about three non-European popes, who were elected from within the Roman Empire. Do you think there could ever be a non Caucasian, non European pope in the future?

[ExMuslim]

Of course. The Roman Church claims to be, and is, universal. No doubt they will appoint a non white pope sometime in the future for PR reasons. Generally Popes have been Italian, so there already is a great deal of diversity with the anointment of a Polish and German popes in these last few years.

[James82]

Will be interesting to see who the next ABoC is as well, roughly the same statistics apply, around 70% of Anglicans live outside the UK, yet there has never been a ABoC from outside the UK, in fact there has only been one from outside England, the current one, who is Welsh. The man in pole position must be Sentamu, a black Ugandan, but will be interesting to see if he is overlooked for yet another white Englishman.

Will there ever be a woman pope or ABoC, a gay pope or ABoC?

[Armaros]

(Original post by James82)
gay pope

A 2005 Vatican document instructs that "those who practise homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called "gay culture"" cannot even be ordained; it's only if you denounce your homosexual leanings as temporary and have subdued them for a period of at least 3 years that you can enter the clergy. With that in mind, I don't anticipate an openly gay Pope any time soon

Edit: uh... forgot all about women! :P
Pope John Paul II: ‎"I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful"

The Catholic Church is really rather good at being staunch about things, so if I were to be told that there would never be a female or openly gay Pope I'd believe it