Word: vaticans
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Redemptorist Theologian F.X. Murphy, a shrewd observer of papal politics since the Second Vatican Council, singles out two qualities that the new Pope must have: "pazienza e presenza, " the patience to deal with a pluralistic, decentralized church and the commanding presence to lead and guide. Similarly, U.S. Sociologist Father Andrew Greeley, in a detailed "job description" for the next Pontiff, concludes that he should be a "hopeful, holy man, who can smile, delegate responsibility and trust other human beings." If he is, Greeley observes, "it does not matter whether he is progressive or moderate...
Sebastiano Cardinal Baggio, 65. Inducted into the Vatican diplomatic corps as a 23-year-old priest, Baggio (pronounced Bah-jee-o) has moved steadily upward in a flawlessly loyal career. As signed first to Vienna, he soon became a Latin American virtuoso, serving in six countries and learning, as he went, superb Spanish, Portuguese, English and half a dozen local dialects. The pastoral job Pope Paul found for him in 1969 would have discouraged a lesser man: the Archbishopric of Cagliari in Sardinia. Baggio gamely traveled the island in a simple black cassock, exhorting fraternal love in place...
Salvatore Cardinal Pappalardo, 59, Archbishop of Palermo, might be a more conciliatory choice. A longtime teacher of Vatican diplomacy who was pro-nuncio to Indonesia during the anti-Communist bloodbath of 1965, Pappalardo capably moved into his faction-ridden Sicilian diocese as a unifying leader. A fellow southern Italian with an outside chance is Corrado Cardinal Ursi, 70, Archbishop of Naples. A widely admired pastor of the poor, Ursi travels from parish to parish to be sure all his people are cared for. His serious drawback is his parochialism: he speaks only Italian and has never served outside the country...
...warned that a divorce referendum in Italy would result in a resounding defeat for the church, which is precisely what happened. It is, however, unlikely that any Cardinal from a major Western nation, such as France, West Germany or, above all, the U.S., would be chosen, lest the Vatican be identified too closely with big-power politics. No Americans are considered papabili anyway...
Professor Hans Küng, Catholic priest and theologian at the University of Tübingen, West Germany, has clashed with the Vatican over such teachings as papal infallibility and birth control. In the following statement, made available to TIME, ten theologians, including Küng* offer some answers to the question: What kind of Pope does today's church need...