When the College of Cardinals gathers in the Sistine Chapel to elect a new pope, the world watches a spectacle steeped in ritual: locked doors, whispered votes, rising smoke. But beyond the incense and Latin incantations lies something surprisingly familiar to scientists, policy analysts, and organisational decision-makers: a structured, iterative consensus process. Strip away the ecclesiastical robes, and what you find is the Vatican’s very own version of the Delphi method.
