In April 2005, Jorge Mario Bergoglio aka Pope Francis almost made history. He was reportedly the only real contender against Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) in the first round of balloting that led to the election of the German as Pope. While Ratzinger became the second consecutive non-Italian to head the Roman Catholic Church, the story would have easily been different.
An unnamed group of cardinals wanted to manipulate the conclave’s outcome as they didn't want Ratzinger to win. They saw him as an "outsider" and Cardinal Jose Mario Bergoglio's candidacy was their best bet to stop that from happening. In Pope Francis' own words, they hoped for a “complete maneuver.”
“The idea was to block the election [of Ratzinger],” he explained. “They were using me, but behind them, they were already thinking about proposing another cardinal. They still couldn’t agree on who, but they were already on the verge of throwing out a name.”
At one point of the conclave, which began on April 18, 2005, the Argentine received as many as 40 of the 115 total votes. If cardinals continued to support him, Ratzinger would not have reached the necessary two-thirds threshold to be elected, and the plot would have worked. Vatican would have searched for an alternative candidate, ending Benedict XVI's journey.
However, when Francis understood he was being used as a pawn in the “operation”, he decided to act. On the second day of voting, he went to Colombian Cardinal Dario Castrillón to not “joke with my candidacy” and cease supporting him, “because I’m not going to accept” being elected.
These details from 2005 were revealed by Pope Francis himself a book about his relationship with his predecessor. “It was a complete maneuver. The idea was to block the election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger... The maneuver consisted of putting my name in, blocking the election of Ratzinger, and then negotiating a different, third candidate...,” he was quoted as saying in the book, titled “The Successor.”
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But could he have pulled an upset? To quote the Pope himself, “That was not the idea of those behind the votes.”
“They used me, but behind them they were already thinking about proposing another cardinal. They still couldn’t agree on who, but they were already on the verge of throwing out a name,” he reportedly said.
