Program: One major succession down and another in play; how the Chinese could try to control the next Dalai Lama

So what’s in a name. When it comes to the papacy, almost everything.

The name a new pope chooses can reveal a lot about his thinking and plans for the Catholic church.

DAN HITCHENS recognised the significance of the name as soon as he heard it announced from the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica.

A Pope Leo XIV will be inaugurated this weekend with a special Mass, but he’s already noticed a huge in-tray on his desk at the Vatican. What will he prioritise? Dr MILES PATTENDEN has some ideas.

In a new book, Voice For The Voiceless, the Dalai Lama reveals that his reincarnated successor could be born in what he calls “the free world”.

It would break with centuries of tradition – and raise the stakes in the dispute with China over control of the Himalayan region that the Dalai Lama fled in 1959.

It also raises the intriguing prospect of the next Dalai Lama being found in Australia.

GUESTS:

Dr MILES PATTENDEN is a papal historian and commentator at Oxford University. 

DAN HITCHENS is a senior editor at First Things and a columnist at Compact magazines.

DR ZOE BEDFORD is the Executive officer from The Australia Tibet Council.