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With a gesture that breaks with thousands of years of tradition, the Pope, usually considered a bulwark of conservatism in the world, has projected the Catholic Church into the third millennium and presented Western culture with a challenge.

The West has been put under pressure by the rise of Asian and African cultures. Now an Asian Pope, long out of the realms of possibility, is one option being considered by the cardinals frantically talking to each other ahead of one of the most momentous conclaves in history.