Who Will Be The Next Pope? Predictions Point to Cardinal Óscar Rodríguez Maradiaga

In the run for Popedom, there is one contestant that stands above the rest: Honduran Óscar Rodríguez Maradiaga.

Rodríguez Maradiaga, now 70, Archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, has been pointed as the most promising contender to occupy the empty seat at the Vatican by many a predictor. He has been at the center of the papal rumors since he was elevated to cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 2001.

He has taken the media world by storm with his irradiating charisma and approachable personality. He speaks six languages -- including Italian, a must for a prospective Pope -- and is known as the Rock n' Roll cardinal because of his love of music. He plays piano and saxophone, among other instruments -- and he motorcycles.

Rodríguez Maradiaga has gained a reputation as a social justice advocate for his efforts to eradicate poverty and his fight against drug trafficking in his native land -- so much so, that he has to travel with an army escort because of the high number of death threats he has received from narco-terrorists. In a time of crisis, he is seen as the only figure most Hondurans would trust.

He was already considered as a Pope when John Paul II passed in 2005, the obvious candidate to be the first pontiff from the developing world. But his obvious left-of-center political views and outspoken character were a significant challenge to the traditional Catholic Church. Nevertheless, when he returned from the conclave, Honduran newspaper El Heraldo welcomed him with the headline "Our Hope, Our Leader, Our Pride."

But he is also not void of controversy. He criticized American media very harshly when it spurred a frenzy over sex abuses in the Catholic church, saying that they were trying to drive attention from the Palestine problem. He was also at the center of a hurricane when an attempted coup took place in Honduras in 2009, in which then President Jose Manuel Zelaya Rosales was flown out of the country. Rodríguez Maradiaga denied the Church had anything to do with it, but he did say that Zelaya had represented an unwanted political change, criticizing him for his alleged alliance with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.

Nevertheless, the fame and admiration he has in all of Latin America still makes him one of the leading candidates from the region, and he, by far, has the best chances of becoming the first Latin American pope.