Vice President JD Vance says he did not realize how sick Pope Francis was when he met with the pontiff at the Vatican a day before he died.

"I've thought a lot about that. I mean, it's pretty crazy, actually," Vance said. "And, obviously, when I saw him, I didn't know that he had less than 24 hours still on this earth. I think it was a great blessing."

Predict who the next pope will be at your peril.

An old Italian saying warns against putting faith, or money, in any presumed front-runner ahead of the conclave, the closed-door gathering of cardinals that picks the pontiff. It cautions: "He who enters a conclave as a pope, leaves it as a cardinal".

But here are some cardinals who are being talked about as "papabili" to succeed Pope Francis, whose death at the age of 88 was announced by the Vatican on Monday. They are listed in alphabetical order...

Pope Francis’ famous exhortation to Catholic youth just months after being elected the 266th pope of the Catholic Church in March 2013 was “Hagan lio!” — “make a mess!” Twelve years later, upon his death Easter Monday morning at age 88, it’s fair to say that Francis took his own advice, making a mess of his pontificate and leaving the Catholic Church in a state of confusion and disarray.

Dust off the history books and there are papal conclaves with international intrigue, royal rigging and even riots, a checkered past that belies the air of sanctity and solemnity surrounding modern papal elections.

The word “conclave” comes from the Latin for “with key.” It is a church tradition that began in 1268 with a papal election that lasted almost three years, ending only when the townspeople of Viterbo locked up the cardinals, tore the roof off their palace, fed them nothing but bread and water and threatened them until a new pope was chosen.

Pope Francis, the first pope from the Americas, has died at the age of 88, the Vatican has announced.

He had battled health problems throughout his life with bravery and good humor. It was a life that took him from an impoverished childhood in Buenos Aires to leader of the Catholic Church's 1.3 billion believers as the 266th pope.

His ascension to the papacy heralded many firsts.

Francis was the first Pope from the Americas or the Southern Hemisphere. Not since Syrian-born Gregory III died in 741 had there been a non-European Bishop of Rome.

He was also the first Jesuit to be elected to the throne of St Peter - Jesuits were historically looked on with suspicion by Rome.

His predecessor, Benedict XVI, was the first Pope to retire voluntarily in almost 600 years and for almost a decade the Vatican Gardens hosted two popes.

Francis, the 266th supreme pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church and spiritual shepherd of her estimated 1.39 billion members for nearly twelve years, died Monday in Rome at the age of 88 weeks after after being hospitalized Feb. 14 to treat double pneumonia, the Vatican announced.

Vice President JD Vance met with the Holy Father only hours earlier.

Pope Francis, the trailblazing Catholic leader known for his human-rights advocacy and sharp political edge, died Monday, April 21, at the age of 88 at his residence in the Vatican’s Casa Santa Marta after battling a long series of health complications stemming from a chronic lung disease, the Vatican announced.

The pontiff had been hospitalized on Feb. 14 with bronchitis, contracted pneumonia four days later and was listed in “critical condition” by the Vatican on Saturday, Feb. 22. He never fully recovered.

Pope Francis, history’s first Latin American pontiff who charmed the world with his humble style and concern for the poor but alienated conservatives with critiques of capitalism and climate change, died Monday. He was 88.

Bells tolled in church towers across Rome after the announcement, which was read out by Cardinal Kevin Ferrell, the Vatican camerlengo, from the chapel of the Domus Santa Marta, where Francis lived.

Pope Francis suffered two episodes of "acute respiratory failure" on Monday, the Vatican said.

The episodes were caused by a "significant accumulation of endobronchial mucus and consequent bronchospasm," the Vatican's press office said in a brief statement.

According to doctors, acute respiratory failure indicates the pope was not responding to oxygen therapy. Endobronchial mucus means there is mucus and fluid in the deep parts of the lung or lungs,...