Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley leads a mass at Santa Maria Della Vittoria as he and the rest of the College of Cardinals prepare to gather this week and select a new pope on March 10, 2013, in Rome, Italy. /Getty Images
VATICAN CITY The Vatican insists that the cardinals participating in the upcoming conclave will vote their conscience, each influenced only by silent prayers and reflection. Everybody knows, however, that power plays, vested interests and Machiavellian maneuvering are all part of the game, and that the horse-trading is already under way.
Can the fractious Italians rally behind a single candidate? Can the Americans live up to their surprise billing as a power broker? And will all 115 cardinals from around the world be able to reach a meeting of minds on whether the church needs a people-friendly pope or a hard-edged manager able to tame Vatican bureaucrats?
This time there are no star cardinals and no big favorites, making the election wide open and allowing the possibility of a compromise candidate should there be deadlock.
While deliberations have been secret, there appear to be two big camps forming that have been at loggerheads in the run-up to the conclave.
One, dominated by the powerful Vatican bureaucracy called the Curia, is believed to be seeking a pope who will let it continue calling the shots as usual. The speculation is that the Curia is pushing the candidacy of Brazilian Odilo Scherer, who has close ties to the Curia and would be expected to name an Italian insider as Secretary of State — the Vatican No. 2 who runs day-to-day affairs at the Holy See.
Another camp, apparently spearheaded by American cardinals, is said to be pushing for a reform-minded pope with the strength to shake up the Curia, tarnished by infighting and the "Vatileaks" scandal in which retired Pope Benedict XVI's own butler leaked confidential documents to a journalist. These cardinals reportedly want Milan archbishop Angelo Scola as pope, as he is seen as having the clout to bring the Curia into line.
The other key question to resolve is whether the pope should be a "pastoral" one — somebody with the charisma and communication skills to attract new members to a dwindling flock — or a "managerial" one capable of a church overhaul in a time of sex-abuse scandals and bureaucratic disarray.
It's hard to find any single candidate who fits the bill on both counts.
Italy has the largest group of cardinal electors with 28, and believes it has a historic right to supply the pope, as it did for centuries. Italians feel it's time to have one of their own enthroned again after 35 years of "foreigners," with the Polish John Paul II and the German Benedict.
But Italians are divided by which Italian church groups they have been affiliated with, and which leaders they follow. A dispute that pitted the followers of the archbishops of Genoa and Florence is said to have cost them the papacy in 1978 after 455 years of Italian popes.
Andrea Riccardi, a founder of the Sant Egidio community and minister of cooperation in the Italian government, says Italian cardinals should get the first look.
"The pope is bishop of Rome," Riccardi said. "Only if the selection of an Italian becomes impractical should it be the case to look in another direction."
From one point of view, the Italians have already suffered a setback. The selection of Tuesday for the conclave to begin is considered a victory for the "foreigners" who had sought more time to get to know get to know one another amid pressures to begin voting as early as Sunday.
And the leading Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, which polled experts on Saturday, found Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley topped their list of papal favorites — ahead of both Scherer and Scola.
Two other Americans — Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York and Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington — also emerged as potential popes in the survey. That was a surprise since Americans had largely been written off because of potential negative perceptions of electing a superpower pope. Vatican watchers have also noted that an American pope would likely have difficulty dealing with anti-Christian violence and persecution in the Islamic world.
But there are 11 American cardinal-electors, second in number only to the Italians, and they are being talked up for their perceived managerial skills.
The American reputation may have been boosted by the Vatican's decision to silence their daily pre-conclave news conferences. The American eagerness for transparency has been well received among Catholics — and cast in sharp contrast to the secrecy-prone Italians.
There is one more camp, which presumably commands enough votes to influence the election.
It is the "Benedict faction," the 67 voting cardinals who owe their red hat and presence in the conclave to the most recent pope. They make up more than half of the voters.
Their loyalty to Benedict could damage the ambitions of any cardinal thought to have damaged his papacy and been part of the "divisions" that Benedict lamented in his final addresses.
Who might that be? Their names are presumably listed in a secret report prepared for Benedict about the "Vatileaks" scandal.
Only a few people have seen that report. None of the cardinals who will be voting are among them.
This conversation is no longer relevant to the article because it has moved beyond discussing what qualities are important for the new pope and is now focused on opinions of religion and the Catholic church. Whether you approve of Catholicism or not, the Cardinals will be picking a new pope soon and my original comment was merely asking what type of person the Catholics should be seeking. Slow News and Rajah could present interesting arguments because the represent unique points of view, but you are both ignoring the question posed by the article and repeated by me. What kind of pope would change your opinion?
What is Christianity? Compassion? Love? Self-sacrifice? Self-loathing?
The challenge of the next Pope...
7 billion people live in the world today. 1.1 billion people claim to be Catholic, though many stopped going to church.
2.4 billion use the Internet.
We live in a world where a single message can reach 1/3rd of the population in seconds. A single message can cause suicides and heartache across the entire world. A single message can expose intolerance, abuse, and even prejudice toward individuals.
God doesn't make mistakes, humans do.
Humans are in charge of understanding God's will. It is easy to see how those rules were biased in the past.
They lived in a small village where people died young. If a few were mistreated, they moved to another village and were never heard from again. Many of our saints and prophets interpreted their writings based on their limited experience.
Now these minorities can no longer be EXCLUDED.
Now, the internet connects us globally with friends and family of all different cultures, skin colors, sexual orientations, and political views. When a leader condemns an individual's entire life, we all feel their pain.
People used to turn to the church for support, but now entire families turn away from the church as the world accepts truths that the church refuses.
Many leaders know that bible interpretations are imperfect. Even the cardinals have differing opinions. The stronger they stand against recognized truths, the less a future society will accept them.
Jesus made it clear that you should treat others the way you wish to be treated.
The next Pope faces many challenges, but the greatest will be to offer a vision of hopeful and fulfilling lives to ALL individuals.
An example is needed:
Throughout all of history, 1 in 12 people have always been Gay, and it shows up randomly in ALL families in ALL cultures. Some are even born naturally with both male and female organs. I think it's God's simple test to see if we can treat everyone kindly.
Over the last few years, the world expressed acceptance that love between two humans isn't limited to opposite sexes. Majorities in every culture now recognize the suffering the church has inflicted on this minority. Compassion is winning over prejudice. Almost every family is discovering they have at least one gay relative. Families now refuse to condemn those loved ones to a lifetime of secrets and misery.
7 billion people in the world today. 0.6 billion people in the world are gay.
I doubt God wanted nearly 10% of his people to leave miserable, self-loathing, lonely, celibate, abused lives, with no hope of any true love over the 90 years of their lives.
These couples are more capable of raising children than single parents. Like any other family, adoption lets them lead rich full lives, and they make excellent grandparents. They also represent a larger population than the total number of church-going Catholics.
Since Christmas 2012, I had a recurring dream that made little sense until the Pope resigned. I saw myself writing this letter.
A man, like the Pope, can make a mistake that causes mass suicides, cause families to tell their kids the life they lead is WRONG, and cause individuals to self-loath themselves into thinking they were God's mistake. That man can also be given the insight that perhaps he made a mistake that destroyed the lives of others. He can realize God's world is more complex than he could handle. He prevented treating individuals as if they were part of God's plan.
If people make other people's entire lives miserable on earth, why would they expect a place in heaven. If people can find a way to treat every life as if it falls into God's master plan, full of hope and love, then they are the ones who have made heaven on earth and deserve a place in an everlasting future.
Prejudice and discrimination brings some together against others; Compassion brings them all.
In the dream, I signed this letter by my Confirmation name: -Faithfully, Eugene
The new Pope should be a holy man who will: 1) Release all reports of child molestation. 2.) Make it clear that any convicted priest will face trial in the civilian courts. 3.) Encourage contraception. 4.) Sell-off properties that are not directly involved in ministering to the world and use the money to develop life-saving help in underdeveloped areas of the world. 5.) Clean house in the curia and other church bureaucracies.
The only way the next Pope will gain any respect from the non-Catholic world is if he opens the dossiers on criminal Priests that this organization has hidden for fear of the Church's coffers being emptied by those choosing to halt their financial support for a criminal organization.
As a baptized, confirmed Catholic, I am hoping that new Pope will bring a hope that all people around the world can trust. The Church desperately needs a leader who is not afraid of facing the problems afflicting the Catholic Church in these modern days. Christians and other religious groups are looking for a Pope who can raise hopes for peace which is what everyone prays for in these troubled times.
Election of a POPE is not a basic factor of the ORGINAL Roman Catholic Church. The Pope by standard is to be the enthroned Christ on Earth by wearing his crown and holding his Staff is can say facts or rules that are not deisputable. This fact is what caused a division of the Church into the Roaman Catholic and Greek Orthodox Church. The one who holds this office MUST be able to deal with this issue to keep unity in place. The issue of Marriage of Priest and Popes WAS NOT a facctor till that requirment of NON Marriage for them was encoded. It is also important that people remember that even a Pope is human as are the Priest and therefor none are perfect. If you have ever been the Rome you will wonder how they can keep it up very long in the Chapel because it is not that big. More than likely an Italian will be elected from Italy or from another Nation. The Dispute with Islam is a vital problem for their operations. The next few days will be interesting. Yes I have been there and seen the Stove they use in the Cystine Chapel.
St. Peter and the first 30 popes who succeeded him as Bishop of Rome were all executed, martyred for the Catholic faith, but each one held the universal authority of the Chair of St. Peter as has every pope who succeeded them.
This reality of the Church Christ was never a problem in the early Church and had nothing to do with the fact that the Eastern churches fell out of communion with the One Church founded by Christ.
The discipline of celibacy was required of all ordained deacons, priests and bishops from the very beginning of the Church, so it is not clear what you are referring to when you say this was not a factor in the early Church.
Finally all of us in the Church pray for the return of our schismatic brothers and sisters in the various independent Eastern Orthodox churches, including the Greek Orthodox church.
May this happen within our lifetimes.
By the way, the chapel is called Sistine not Cystine.
Servorum - Your statement about priestly celibacy is inaccurate. It is well known that Peter was married as were most of the apostles. Read "History of the Catholic Church: From the Apostolic Age to the Third Millennium" to get a sense of how these laws were formulated.
As far as universal authority of the Chair...one need not look too far past the debates that Peter had with Paul (and lost on occasion) to know that there was not such thing as universal authority, nor should there be.
As Benedict's resignation makes clear... the death of the papal monarchy is complete and collegiality once again rules the Universal Church.
Catholics believe the Holy Spirit inspires the Cardinals to pick the next Pope. The CBS comment about "Horse-trading" is insulting and lead to the other anti catholic comments on this post. Catholics don't use polls or focus groups to pick a Pope. Respect all religions.
They do need someone to clear out the scandal and to reform the Curia. If they don't create more transparency they run the risk of losing the Catholics that pay the bill, namely the North Americans. There are issues that need to be dealt with not pushed under the rug. We need a vibrant and active church not a continuation of the same old. We got that with Benedict who was from the begining a caretaker pope after John Paul II. We need a pope for this century.
The posting of advertisements, profanity, or personal attacks is prohibited. By using this Web site you agree to accept our Terms of Service. Click here to read the Rules of Engagement.
Reply to Comment The posting of advertisements, profanity, or personal attacks is prohibited. By using this Web site you agree to accept our Terms of Service. Click here to read the Rules of Engagement.
What is Christianity? Compassion? Love? Self-sacrifice? Self-loathing?
The challenge of the next Pope...
7 billion people live in the world today.
1.1 billion people claim to be Catholic, though many stopped going to church.
2.4 billion use the Internet.
We live in a world where a single message can reach 1/3rd of the population in seconds. A single message can cause suicides and heartache across the entire world. A single message can expose intolerance, abuse, and even prejudice toward individuals.
God doesn't make mistakes, humans do.
Humans are in charge of understanding God's will. It is easy to see how those rules were biased in the past.
They lived in a small village where people died young. If a few were mistreated, they moved to another village and were never heard from again. Many of our saints and prophets interpreted their writings based on their limited experience.
Now these minorities can no longer be EXCLUDED.
Now, the internet connects us globally with friends and family of all different cultures, skin colors, sexual orientations, and political views. When a leader condemns an individual's entire life, we all feel their pain.
People used to turn to the church for support, but now entire families turn away from the church as the world accepts truths that the church refuses.
Many leaders know that bible interpretations are imperfect. Even the cardinals have differing opinions. The stronger they stand against recognized truths, the less a future society will accept them.
Jesus made it clear that you should treat others the way you wish to be treated.
The next Pope faces many challenges, but the greatest will be to offer a vision of hopeful and fulfilling lives to ALL individuals.
An example is needed:
Throughout all of history, 1 in 12 people have always been Gay, and it shows up randomly in ALL families in ALL cultures. Some are even born naturally with both male and female organs. I think it's God's simple test to see if we can treat everyone kindly.
Over the last few years, the world expressed acceptance that love between two humans isn't limited to opposite sexes. Majorities in every culture now recognize the suffering the church has inflicted on this minority. Compassion is winning over prejudice. Almost every family is discovering they have at least one gay relative. Families now refuse to condemn those loved ones to a lifetime of secrets and misery.
7 billion people in the world today.
0.6 billion people in the world are gay.
I doubt God wanted nearly 10% of his people to leave miserable, self-loathing, lonely, celibate, abused lives, with no hope of any true love over the 90 years of their lives.
These couples are more capable of raising children than single parents. Like any other family, adoption lets them lead rich full lives, and they make excellent grandparents. They also represent a larger population than the total number of church-going Catholics.
Since Christmas 2012, I had a recurring dream that made little sense until the Pope resigned. I saw myself writing this letter.
A man, like the Pope, can make a mistake that causes mass suicides, cause families to tell their kids the life they lead is WRONG, and cause individuals to self-loath themselves into thinking they were God's mistake. That man can also be given the insight that perhaps he made a mistake that destroyed the lives of others. He can realize God's world is more complex than he could handle. He prevented treating individuals as if they were part of God's plan.
If people make other people's entire lives miserable on earth, why would they expect a place in heaven. If people can find a way to treat every life as if it falls into God's master plan, full of hope and love, then they are the ones who have made heaven on earth and deserve a place in an everlasting future.
Prejudice and discrimination brings some together against others; Compassion brings them all.
In the dream, I signed this letter by my Confirmation name:
-Faithfully, Eugene
That's funny....
As a Catholic I pray that the new Pope is going to be as great and holy has his first predecessor and brings peace and unity in the world.
This reality of the Church Christ was never a problem in the early Church and had nothing to do with the fact that the Eastern churches fell out of communion with the One Church founded by Christ.
The discipline of celibacy was required of all ordained deacons, priests and bishops from the very beginning of the Church, so it is not clear what you are referring to when you say this was not a factor in the early Church.
Finally all of us in the Church pray for the return of our schismatic brothers and sisters in the various independent Eastern Orthodox churches, including the Greek Orthodox church.
May this happen within our lifetimes.
By the way, the chapel is called Sistine not Cystine.
As far as universal authority of the Chair...one need not look too far past the debates that Peter had with Paul (and lost on occasion) to know that there was not such thing as universal authority, nor should there be.
As Benedict's resignation makes clear... the death of the papal monarchy is complete and collegiality once again rules the Universal Church.
You are absolutely right. Many of us were insulted by CBS News for the use of the term "horse-trading" in their headline.
It's not only insulting and offensive, it's untrue.