Word: papabilis
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...Wednesday, April 13, 11 pm, Vatican City For the past three years, Milan's Dionigi Cardinal Tettamanzi has been the frontrunner to bring the papacy back to Italy after its 455-year grip on the job was broken by Karol Wojtyla. But another Italian has emerged on most papabili lists over the past year: Angelo Cardinal Scola, the Patriarch of Venice, who offers a more forceful, some would say aggressive, alternative to the affable Tettamanzi. He is considered a die-hard defender of John Paul II's strict line on Church doctrine, and one source notes that the 63-year...
...ardent defenders was Mexico City's Norberto Cardinal Rivera Carrera, who notoriously blamed the entire sex abuse scandal on the U.S. media. Rivera was one of just a handful of fellow Cardinals in attendance today at St. Peter's. He is also on most Vatican watchers' short-lists of "papabili" or potential popes. But it remains to be seen whether Rivera could muster key support from the 11-strong bloc of U.S. Cardinals after his remarks about the scandal. Most of the American Cardinals know very well that the sex abuse crisis was fortunately exposed-not caused!-by the American...
What may be in play in the conclave, however, is some papabili's position that it is all right to discuss such changes (a practice John Paul and Ratzinger limited severely). Belgium's Danneels, for instance, has predicted that the church may someday want to revisit its role for women. That charms the liberal, priest-challenged West, although it may not ultimately help his papal chances. Others may hope to project a pastoral openness or allow their priests a certain leeway while refusing to cross certain lines. "Flexibility keeps coming up" in Cardinals' statements, says Gibson. "Not compromise but flexibility...
...sleeper issue at the Conclave," says Father Richard McBrien, a professor of theology at Notre Dame. "I think it should go to the top of your list," says Catholic University's Ferme. Although little-discussed outside the church, there is one area in which the papabili may wish to distinguish themselves by openly criticizing John Paul's legacy: Rome's centralization of power at the expense of its local managers...
Prior to the past few weeks, there was much talk that the conclave that replaced John Paul might discount relatively youthful papabili like Schönborn, 60, and Rodríguez Maradiaga, 62. Reason: after John Paul's multidecade marathon, the electors would, as McBrien puts it, "be looking for a breather" and would try to avoid the possibility of another long-term Pontiff. There was much discussion of an older, interim figure, a caretaker who by definition would have to worry less about living up to John Paul's gargantuan legacy...