Cardinal Odilo Pedro Scherer

All 115 cardinals will gather in the Vatican for the papal conclave this week and the list of possible candidates is long. Though any one of them could be the next pope, Vatican experts have identified a few potential favorites.

The Archbishop of Sao Paolo, the largest Catholic diocese in the world, Cardinal Odilo Pedro Scherer is a front-runner for those in favor of a Latin American pope. Of German heritage and with several years of Vatican experience, Scherer, 63, is seen as a good mix between the old world and new; someone whom Europeans, Latin Americans, and Curia Cardinals might agree on. Seen as a traditionalist, Cardinal Scherer has nonetheless championed the cause of the Amazon forest and environmental issues in Brazil as well as the social concerns of liberation theology.

In this photograph, Cardinal Scherer speaks during a press conference at Se Cathedral in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Feb. 13, 2013.

Credit: Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images