In the hours after Pope Francis’s death on Easter Monday a surprising name began to circulate as a potential successor, sparking fevered speculation in conservative social media circles.

Cardinal Robert Sarah of Guinea is exactly the kind of “anti-woke Pope” that many conservative and traditionalist Catholics yearn for after more than a decade in which the progressive element of the Roman Church has been in the ascendant.

He has firmly adopted the conservative line on everything from same-sex marriage and gender ideology to the dangers of Western secularism, Islamic fundamentalism and the threat uncontrolled migration poses to European culture and values.

There was only one problem. Before Monday, few, not even most, credible Catholic conservatives thought he had the slightest chance. He was thought too outspoken, too conservative and, at 79, quite possibly too old to win sufficient support in the College of Cardinals, who will meet in conclave in the Sistine Chapel over the coming weeks to choose a new pontiff. Betting sites gave him just a 2 per cent shot at becoming the next Pope.

Cardinal Sarah’s chances, however, have been boosted somewhat by neatly packaged sound bites circulated rapidly around conservative social media spheres of influence.

An unattributed and rather grainy video interview with the cardinal warning of the dangers of migration to Europe also began to do the rounds on Monday as the Pope’s death was settling in for many.

“My biggest worry is that Europe has lost the sense of its origins,” the footage shows Cardinal Sarah as saying. “It has lost its roots… I’m afraid the West is dying… You are invaded still by other cultures, other people which will progressively dominate you by their numbers and completely change your culture, your convictions, your culture.”

The video was seized on with delight. Nick Sortor, a Maga influencer and podcast host with 953,000 followers, posted: “Wow! One of the frontrunners for Pope, Cardinal Robert Sarah, is a hardliner against mass migration.”