I would consider this Cardinal from Argentina a favorite — Leonardo Sandri.
Sandri, 69, left for Rome at 27 and never came back to stay in Argentina. Initially trained as a canon lawyer, he reached the No. 3 spot in the church’s hierarchy under Pope John Paul II, the zenith of a long career in the Vatican’s diplomatic service ranging from Africa to Mexico to Washington.
As substitute secretary of state for seven years, he essentially served as the pope’s chief of staff, running the central office at the heart of the Vatican bureaucracy known as the Curia.
Sandri remains a consummate Vatican insider. Benedict promoted him to cardinal and named him to the Vatican’s Supreme Tribunal, which provides the second-to-last word on church law, after the pope. Sandri also is one of very few cardinals in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the rule-making bastion Joseph Ratzinger (Benedict XVI) led for many years before becoming pope.
The Catholic faithful probably best remember him as the “voice of the pope” who delivered papal speeches when John Paul II became too infirm, and it was Sandri who announced the beloved pope’s death to the crowd in St. Peter’s Square, adding the memorable observation that “we all feel like orphans this evening.”
One strike against Sandri -— He has never led a congregation, this will be a disadvantage for cardinals who want the next pope to have pastoral experience.
That is an example of a cardinal who is in his 60’s, this is why I put for a cardinal in 50-60’s age range, not way too old, someone who could hand major trips to far-flung Catholic communites plus be tech savvy in this age of social media.
Sandri is a serious liberal and was on the side of Marini and Bergoglio (the rivals to Ratzinger).