Father Dave continues his conversation with John Allen, Jr., as the Holy Spirit will soon guide the College of Cardinals in the papal conclave. John is editor of Crux, an independent Catholic news service that aims to be an objective voice in Catholic media, and has written twelve books on the Vatican and Catholic affairs.
Before diving into particular cardinals who could become pope, John prefaces his commentary with three thoughts on papal predictions. “Number one, old Italians have a saying: He who enters a conclave as a pope exits as a cardinal. Meaning, if a guy is getting talked about, it may well not be him. In fact, the fact that he’s getting talked about may hurt him more than it helps him,” John begins.
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“Point two, Italians also say that you always follow a fat pope with a thin one, meaning that even though Pope Francis appointed [108] of the 135 cardinals who are going to elect a successor, that doesn’t mean they’re just going to run to a photocopy machine and give us a clone of Pope Francis,” he says. “Let us remember that in 2013 a conclave composed entirely of cardinals who had been appointed by Pope John Paul II and Benedict XVI gave us a very different kind of pope in Francis.”
John’s third point specifically addresses an American audience. “Let us remember that there are around 1.3 billion Roman Catholics in the world, and there are about 65 million Catholics in the United States. …Put another way, 94% of Catholics in the world are not Americans,” he says, and notes that American issues may not be the priority.
With those points in mind, John says, “My take would be every conclave comes down to a referendum on the papacy that just ended. Did we like it and want to keep it going? Or do we think it’s time for a change?”
“If you are a continuity voter in the conclave and somebody who’s going to keep things going, here are some names that are getting talked about,” he continues. “Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin is currently the Vatican Secretary of State, the pope’s top diplomat or top aide. He would be seen as somebody who would continue the Francis agenda, but he is much more conventional. Another continuity candidate would be Cardinal Matteo Zuppi of Bologna, who is currently the president of the very powerful Italian Bishops’ Conference.”
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John offers some names that may have a different approach than Pope Francis. “[They] might be looking at Cardinal Péter Erdő of the Diocese of Budapest in Hungary. He’s a canon lawyer by training, [a] church lawyer [with] a very fine mind, and is seen as a more traditional figure,” John says, and he also notes Cardinal Willem Eijk of the Netherlands as another possibility here.
“If you’re looking for a compromise waiting in the wings, I would suggest one name that’s getting an awful lot of buzz in Rome right now,” John continues. “Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who was Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, or the top Catholic in the Holy Land. He gets high marks for very deftly navigating the Israeli-Palestinian [conflict]. I think a lot of people think if he can do that, maybe he can help us with the divisions in the Catholic Church as well.”
