Parallel Research: Mapping Influence in the College of Cardinals

Shortly after this project went online (1. May), a separate but parallel study by researchers at Bocconi University – “In the Network of the Conclave” – was published by Giuseppe Soda, Alessandro Iorio, and Leonardo Rizzo (first mention to my knowledge 7th May) . Their approach also applies social network analysis to explore influence within the College of Cardinals and the mechanisms behind papal elections.

While their goal aligns with this project—highlighting hidden structures of ecclesiastical power—there are important methodological differences:

• This project includes common reciprocal co-consecrator ties, which are omitted in the Bocconi model.
• Their analysis incorporates curial co-memberships and informal relationships based on journalistic sources.
• They use eigenvector instead of (somehow similar) page rank as indicator.
• They confine their analysis to the conclave network and don't analysis the complete bishops network.

Interestingly, Robert Prevost ranks highest in one of three indicators, their “status” metric — an indicator based on eigenvector centrality within their custom-built model. While this differs from the consecration-based network shown here, it underscores his visibility and strategic placement when constructing the network the way they did.

Unfortunately, the Bocconi team has not yet made their dataset public, once their underlying data is released it is possible to compare in mored detail.

Still, the appearance of two independent network studies on the papal conclave underscores the value of using network science to better understand one of the most opaque elections in the world. Both projects offer complementary lenses—each limited, but together enriching the view.