I’ll guarantee you that US policy will have NO influence other than the rejection of most of US policy from the next Pope.
I personally think the next pope is going to be Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco from Genoa since he is very much like Pope Benedict XVI
Since Latin America has about 43% of the world’s catholics, does that mean they have 43% of the cardinals? (I’m not Roman Catholic, so I don’t know.)
If so, could they team with the 10+% of North Americans (Canada?) to control the selection?
Finally, is there a truly conservative cardinal anywhere in the Americas?