The first conclave to elect a pope covered by The Tablet was in 1846, after the death of Gregory XVI. Papabili were mentioned, though Mastai-Ferretti, who was to become Pius IX, was not among them. Alas its record for picking future popes scarcely improved over the following 11 elections each time a conclave came round in the course of The Tablet’s 175-year history, it is tempting to think that contributors have sharpened pencils, looked over the list of cardinal electors, and written incisively about each, picking out particularly those considered, by the paper’s correspondents or others, to be the most likely candidates for the vacant see of Peter. That is indeed what happened last time, but last time was of course something of an oddity. On 11 February 2013 Benedict XVI an