It is a conclave of superlatives. More Catholic Church cardinals will move into the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican on May 7 than for any papal election to date: 133 cardinals are expected. It will then be closed-door deliberations until they reach a majority in favor of a single choice for the new pope.

This conclave will also see more cardinals coming from different countries than ever before: 71. In the last papal election, in 2013, they came from 48 countries, and in 2005 it was 52 countries.

Pope Francis, who died on Easter Monday at the age of 88, had worked to make the 1.4 billion-member Catholic Church more universal and to end its focus on Europe. During that time, he broke with previous customs regarding who in the world could become a cardinal and also the character of the College of Cardinals.

"It is generally more difficult to predict the outcome of the election today, since the College of Cardinals is nationally and culturally more heterogeneous," Augsburg church historian Jörg Ernesti told DW.

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Speculation is rife. Even on the day of Francis's death, many media outlets posed the question:........

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