Thursday, February 21, 2013

Could the next Catholic Pope come from the U.S.? Boston to be more specific?

As cardinals around the world prepare to elect Pope Benedict XVI’s successor next month, speculation is raging about potential candidates — and a number of Italian Vatican-watchers have begun to mention ­Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley. 
In a blog entry Tuesday, John ­Allen, Vatican correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter, cited six Italian journalists or media outlets that had pointed to the Roman Catholic archbishop of Boston as a possible, if unlikely, contender for the ­papacy.... 
[...] 
“The reason people pay atten­tion to the Italian press is because they have good sources among the Italian cardinals, so you get quite a feel for what the gossip is there,” said the Rev. Thomas J. Reese, a senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Woodstock Theological Center. “But you also have to take it with a grain of salt, because the Italian press are more like novelists than reporters.” 
Allen writes that there are two main reasons for the flurry of interest in O’Malley, who came to Boston in 2003: his reputation as a reformer in the aftermath of the clergy sexual abuse scandal and his image as a humble Capuchin friar with no interest in the trappings of wealth. The latter is viewed by many in the Italian press as an asset in a Vatican riven by ­infighting and allegations of ­financial corruption....
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