Word: papabilis
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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...
...Europeans have other papabili, among them Godfried Cardinal Danneels, 61, of Belgium. And then there is another prominent convert: Jean-Marie Lustiger, 68, the Archbishop of Paris. Lustiger was born a Jew, the son of Polish emigres to France (his mother would die in Auschwitz). Abandoning his original name, Aaron, he adopted Catholicism as a teenager, a move that hurt his parents terribly. Lustiger is a trusted confidant of John Paul's; when he first visited the Pope, John Paul's secretary, Monsignor Stanislaw Dziwisz, grabbed the Frenchman's arm and told him, "Remember, you are the fruit...
...prompted speculation in the press that John Paul might do the unthinkable and abdicate, rather than limp along as a semi-invalid Pope confining his actions to the minutiae of the Vatican bureaucracy. There had even been talk of a new papal conclave. This time around, the early favored papabili were Italians who have reputations as seasoned administrators. One was Casaroli, a moderate who has gained exposure as John Paul's loyal second in command. The other: Giovanni Benelli, 60, the conservative, often abrasive Archbishop of Florence, who was runner-up to John Paul at the 1978 conclave. There...