Pope Benedict XVI will call it quits at the end of this month, clearing the way for an election of a new pope. The Vatican's best guess as to when that'll happen is sometime before Easter, which falls on March 31 this year. In the meantime, expect plenty of speculation (of both the informed and uninformed varities) to come pouring in about who Benedict's successor will be.

So who are among the early favorites? The cardinals being name-dropped the most in early reports on Benedict's resignation include: Marc Ouellet of Canada, Leonardo Sandri of Argentina, Francis Arinze of Nigeria, Peter Turkson of Ghana, Christoph Schoenborn of Austria, and Angelo Scola of Italy. The thing that jumps out the most from that list is that only Scola and Schoenborn hail from Europe, suggesting that the church may soon have its first non-European Holy Father in more than a thousand years. (For what it's worth, Ouellet, Arinze, and Turkson currently make up many bookies' top three.)

Pope Benedict XVI has chosen over one-half of the cardinals eligible to elect his successor.