The next pope may just be a mouse-click away.
Pope John Paul II, known as "The Great Communicator", broadcast his message to the world over loudspeakers, television screens, radio and newspapers.
Some of his possible successors have taken it one step further, using interactive Web sites to speak to their flock.
"Post your petitions, intentions and thanksgivings and Cardinal Ivan Dias will raise you up in prayer," says the Web site for the archbishop of Bombay, www.archbom.org.
"Request the Cardinal to pray for: Petitions, Intentions, Thanksgiving ... gift of a child ... financial help ... world peace," the next page continues, complete with boxes to click.
Fittingly for India, which turns out thousands of information technology specialists every year, the site is an Internet wonderland, even featuring an online weekly poll: "Is death the end of everything? Yes - No - Can't say".
Despite his diocese's high-tech site, Dias is considered a conservative in questions of faith, for example rejecting theological teachings that embrace India's religious diversity by acknowledging God's work in all religions.
The Web site of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio's Buenos Aires archdiocese includes a list of videos on subjects ranging from sexual morals to tango and bioethics, which can be ordered by email.
Unofficial fan sites spring up
Other potential popes, such as Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, publish sermons, essays and favourite quotes online (www.stephanscom.at), while fans of some Princes of the Church have set up unofficial Web sites to promote their favourites.
One man started a campaign for Belgian Cardinal Godfried Danneels because they share a surname:
"The next time the white smoke wafts its curly way from the Vatican chimney to heaven, let's all hope the holy skywriting spells DANNEELS!" says the site www.deuceofclubs.com/danneels/danneels.htm.
After a pope's death, cardinals are locked in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel to vote for a successor. When they succeed, they burn the ballot papers with chemicals that produce white smoke.
German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Vatican's doctrinal watchdog, has two unofficial online fanclubs, despite having made himself some enemies by cracking down on dissenters.
One is mainly an Italian-language collection of his publications (www.ratzinger.it).
The other, www.ratzingerfanclub.com, opens with a Bible quote to defend Ratzinger's strict line: "Preach the word ... convince, rebuke and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching ... (St. Paul, 2 Tim 4:2)"
The fan club runs a discussion forum where opinions differ widely on the 77-year-old Ratzinger.
"The Cardinal has often received criticism ... for taking a stand for the truth of the Catholic faith and this was a way to show public appreciation," the site's founder writes.
The site also includes a list of frequently asked questions -- and exasperated answers by the apparent site manager: "No, Virginia, Cardinal Ratzinger is not a Nazi."