Scola was considered a favorite the last time a pope was chosen, in 2005.
Scola met Ratzinger when Scola wrote for Communion magazine, a publication cofounded by Ratzinger.
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According to the Times, the insiders are backing Brazilian Scherer, while the reformers support Scola.
Scola is affable and Italian, but not from the Italian-centric Vatican bureaucracy called the Curia.
Scola has ranked near the top of every list of possible popes since Benedict announced his resignation.
In the first ballot that night, the cardinals who garnered significant votes were Cardinals Bergoglio, Scola and Ouellet.
Close behind are the Archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Angelo Scola, at 5-1 and Argentina's Leonardo Sandri, at 7-1.
Det Ch Insp Nick Scola said he was "very pleased" with the sentence.
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Scola also has clear ties to the most conservative elements in the church.
The favorites include Archbishop Angelo Scola and Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone of Italy.
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Unlike Ratzinger, who was terribly shy in public, Scola is said to be gregarious and to especially enjoy communing with young people.
Analysts say Europeans are still among the favourites, including the current Archbishop of Milan, Angelo Scola, and Christoph Schoenbron - a former Austrian student of Benedict.
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At the moment, one of the leading papabili, or papal contenders, is 71-year-old Italian Cardinal Angelo Scola, the archbishop of Milan, a high-profile position in the church.
Cardinal Angelo Scola, the archbishop of Milan, heads a foundation to promote Muslim-Christian understanding, and looks after Afghanistan's only Catholic Church as if it were in his diocese.
Kevin Waylan (ph) of Centerville, Virginia, Thomas McClellan(ph) of Ellicott City, Maryland, Allison Nehome(ph) of Bethesda, Maryland, Michael Scola(ph) of Chicago and Earl Luther of San Bernardino, California.
That roster included two of the names that were most frequently being mentioned by the media: Cardinal Ouellet, a former Archbishop of Quebec, and Cardinal Scola of Milan.
The reformers have rallied behind Cardinal Angelo Scola from Milan.
The candidacies of Cardinals Ouellet and Scola were weighed.
Vatican watcher Austen Ivereigh said that if Wednesday brought white smoke, the new Pope would likely be Cardinal Angelo Scola, a 71-year-old Italian theologian widely regarded as a safe pair of hands.
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But while the names of Cardinals Scola and the Brazilian Odilo Scherer may be generating more headlines than others at this stage, there is far less certainty in predictions than there was eight years ago.
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Some of them, like Bono, Oprah Winfrey and Lance Armstrong, obviously have no chance, but today Power is giving Scola two-to-one odds of getting the job, better than anyone else on the list.
The buzz swirled around Cardinal Angelo Scola, an Italian seen as favored by cardinals hoping to shake up the powerful Vatican bureaucracy, and Brazilian Cardinal Odilo Scherer, a favorite of Vatican-based insiders intent on preserving the status quo.
Members of another potential voting bloc "Ratzingerian" cardinals who are close to Benedict XVI were also divided between cardinals Scola and Ouellet, both of whom have deep ties with the former pope and are considered theological and intellectual admirers of his.
The buzz in the papal stakes swirled around Cardinal Angelo Scola, an Italian seen as favored by cardinals hoping to shake up the powerful Vatican bureaucracy, and Brazilian Cardinal Odilo Scherer, a favorite of Vatican-based insiders intent on preserving the status quo.
The others listed are Leonardo Sandri of Argentina, George Pell of Australia, Marc Ouellet of Canada, Dominik Duka or the Czech Republic, Peter Turkson of Ghana, Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras, Tarcisio Bertone and Angelo Scola of Italy, and Norberto Rivera Carrera of Mexico, the group said.
Cardinals pushing for a new pope to clean house inside the Curia, the analysts said, are weighing candidates as diverse as Cardinals Angelo Scola of Milan, Timothy Dolan of New York and Marc Ouellet, the former Archbishop of Quebec who ran the department for bishop appointments under Pope Benedict.
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