The Vatican has a thing about colour. There is a white cassock for the pontiff; scarlet cloaks for the cardinals; navy and gold uniforms for the Swiss Guards; yellow for the flag - and soon, we might know whether there is white smoke for a black pope.
Behind the dark shutters overlooking St Peter's Square, the 83-year-old leader of the Roman Catholic church is ailing, possibly dying. His aides seem to be preparing the public with solemn pronouncements saying he is in a very bad way, prompting some in the crowds gathered beneath his window this week to weep.
Others cast their eyes to the right of the apostolic palace, to the window of a cardinal who could become very famous very soon. Francis Arinze is tipped by some to succeed John Paul II and become the first African in 1,500 years to sit on the throne of St Peter.
If he does, the world will devour every detail about this stocky Nigerian - that he spent his early years in the countryside outside the Catholic faith; that he loves tennis and football; that he hangs African masks on his apartment walls; that he thinks Muslims, Buddhists and Jews can go to heaven; and that he stopped taking sugar in his tea during the Biafran war.
For many, the most compelling detail would be his race: a black man with more international influence than many white prime ministers and presidents. As pope he would wield a unique blend of spiritual and political power, able to mobilise the opinions of up to a billion Catholics and sway the policies of nation states.
| Continue Rory Carroll's "The Guardian profile: Cardinal Francis Arinze"
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