May 1, 2025 5:01 PM

Will Italy get the papacy back after half a century of foreigners?

As Catholic cardinals meet to choose a new pope, they will face a big question: Is it time, after three consecutive non-Italian pontiffs, to give the papacy back to the nation that held it for most of the 2,000-year history of the Roman Catholic Church? For 455 years between the death of Dutchman Adrian VI in 1523 and the election of Poland's John Paul II in 1978, the Italians had total control of the papacy. In all, roughly 80% of the Church's 266 popes have been Italian. But John Paul was su...