The voting process to elect a new Pope, which is getting under way in Rome, will be the second conclave in a row without a cardinal from Scotland.
Experts believe Scotland is still in the "sin bin" with The Vatican after the country's last cardinal, Keith O'Brien, was forced to resign because of sexual misconduct allegations.
In February 2013, Cardinal O'Brien was about to take part in the ancient tradition of electing a pope – and his enthusiasm was there for all to see.
During an interview with BBC Scotland News he showed off the neat brown rectangular voting paper to be used in the secret ballot.
But it would forever remain blank.
Cardinal O'Brien, who at the time was the Catholic Church's most senior cleric in Britain, had been due to meet his peers to decide who was to replace Pope Benedict XVI – but he never made it on the plane to Rome.
The 74-year-old Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh resigned days before the conclave following The Observer newspaper's allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards priests dating back to the 1980s.
The scandal sparked global media attention and rocked the Catholic Church at a time when all eyes should have been on Rome's Sistine Chapel and the process that eventually saw Pope Francis elected.
It was a seismic blow to Scotland's standing in the Catholic Church after decades of arguably punching above its weight.
How many cardinals has Scotland had?
Scotland has only ever had a handful of cardinals. The Reformation, which led to restrictions on practising Catholicism lasting centuries, was largely to blame.
Even when the Catholic Church was formally re-established in Scotland in 1878, almost a century passed before such a high-ranking appointment would be made again.
The traditional red cardinal hat was handed to Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, Gordon Gray. He took part in two conclaves – August and October 1978, which saw Popes John Paul I and John Paul II elected respectively.
But Cardinal Gray's crowning moment was in 1982 when Scotland welcomed a serving Pope for the first time.
On a roasting summer's day, an estimated 300,000 people gathered in Glasgow's Bellahouston Park for a Papal Mass celebrated by John Paul II.
The next cardinal appointed in Scotland was Thomas Winning, a miner's son from Wishaw in North Lanarkshire.
Earning the nickname "Cardinal Controversy" for his interventions on social issues – including clashing with Prime Minister Tony Blair on abortion – he died in 2001 without taking part in a conclave.
His replacement was Keith O'Brien, who had worked his way up the church's hierarchy before being proclaimed a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 2003.
Cardinal O'Brien took part in the 2005 conclave which elected Pope Benedict XVI and then five years later welcomed the German-born pontiff to an open-air Mass, again at Bellahouston Park in Glasgow.
The clergyman, who was born in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, was on the path to retirement when the scandal that was to end his career broke in early 2013.
The Observer first reported the allegations of four individuals who accused Cardinal O'Brien of inappropriate sexual behaviour within the Diocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh.
The Herald newspaper later suggested that the cardinal had used confession by young clerics as a device for sexual grooming.
He contested the allegations, but in his resignation statement there was an oblique reference to the claims.
"For any good I have been able to do, I thank God. For any failures, I apologise to all whom I have offended," he said.
While the church had accepted his resignation from high office it allowed him to keep his cardinal moniker.
After the public spotlight faded, he initially lived in a retirement home in East Lothian.
He then moved to the north east of England where in March 2018, at the age of 80, he suffered a fall and later died.
His Requiem Mass took place in Newcastle and his remains were laid to rest with his parents at Mount Vernon Cemetery in Edinburgh.