From NCR [liberal view]:
The axiom “he who enters the conclave a Pope, leaves a cardinal” is as wrong as it is ubiquitous. Commentators on TV who know nothing about the church repeat it ad nauseam. A quick review of the last century of conclaves illustrates why it is wrong — and much else!
In the conclaves of 1939, 1963 and 2005, the person who “entered the conclave a Pope” did, in fact, emerge as Pope. In 1939, as the storm clouds of war prepared to unleash their fury, the cardinals turned to the church’s most seasoned diplomat, the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli. It was the shortest conclave of the 20th century, with Pacelli winning the papacy on the third ballot. He took the name Pius XII.