Word: papabili
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...there is a counterposition, it is advanced by a group that Monsignor Brian Ferme, a dean at Catholic University who knows several of the papabili, describes as "not denying the inequalities of injustices but arguing that if you get the church's internal priorities right, its external work will proceed that much more effectively." Roughly translated, that is a line long familiar to some conservative Protestants: Take care of the souls, and the pocketbooks will follow. Yet to become Pope, anyone pursuing in that camp will need to convince his brethren that he does care about the pocketbook part...
...front runner in the race is, according to church tradition, a formula for losing it. "He who goes into the conclave as Pope comes out a Cardinal," goes the Roman maxim. Take the case of the Colombian Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, 71, one of several so-called papabili (Italian for "Popables"). Castrillon Hoyos speaks several languages and possesses an attractive combination of real-world pastoral experience and inside-the-Vatican bureaucratic savvy. In 1999, his compatriot Gabriel Garcia Marquez sang his praises in print, recalling how the Cardinal had dressed as a civilian to meet with drug lord Pablo Escobar...
...hopes to be Pope, it's important not to say so, but hiding one's light entirely is not wise either. Like junior professors on track for tenure, some papabili are prolific authors. Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini's commentary on the Gospel of Mark is currently making the rounds and Cardinal Dionigi Tettemanzi published the 650-page New Christian Bioethics last year. A little strategic globe hopping may help too. Ray Flynn, the former U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, believes that to rank the papabili it's important to "get their frequent-flyer reports." A lifelong Catholic, Flynn...