8Once Pope Francis can no longer serve, it's almost certain that one of the nineteen cardinals featured in these pages will be called by God to become the next pope, the spiritual leader of over a billion Catholics and the most influential and widely respected moral and religious figure in the world.

Yet outside the Vatican walls, despite the considerable roles that some of these men play in the Church and in the world, few of them are known by the public or even by their brother cardinals!

Hence this book, an engrossing and thoroughly documented tool by which a future pope may be known in that sphere that matters most - namely, his life and service first as a priest and then as a bishop.

Written in charity and truth by Edward Pentin, the National Catholic Register's longtime Rome correspondent, these encyclopedic pages present you with the results of years of research by a respected team of international scholars.