Top cardinals proposing a ticket of pope and secretary of state

Top cardinals proposing ‘ticket’ of pope and secretary of state

Monday, March 4th, 2013

Informed sources both within and outside the Vatican confirm that a group of cardinals are seeking to have Archbishop of Sao Paolo, Brazil, Odilo Pedro Scherer as pope, accompanied by one of two options for Secretary of State.

Cardinal Scherer, 63, is a well-respected Latin American prelate, of German extraction, he is considered to be “measured” and who speaks good Italian.

He worked in the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops from 1994 to 2001 and with Cardinal Re, who later became head of Congregation for Bishops and ensured Scherer became a bishop.

Among the proponents of this initiative are two leading cardinals – Angelo Sodano, the Dean of the College of Cardinals, and Giovanni Battista Re, the Deputy Dean, and the man who because Sodano is over 80, will take over from Sodano once the Conclave is formed.

It is no secret that Sodano and the current Secretary of State, Cardinal Bertone do not see eye-to-eye.

At the same time as promoting Scherer, Sodano and Re are suggesting, as part of a ‘ticket’, either Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, the Prefect of the Congregation for Clergy, or Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, as the Secretary of State.

Both Piacenza and Sandri are said to know the Roman Curia well.

Sandri had the post of ‘Substitute’, that is the third ranking position in the Vatican, in the last phase of the pontificate of John Paul II and the beginning of Benedict XVI’s reign.

However, John Allen in his NCR blog, is quick to point out that Andrea Tornielli, widely seen as the best-connected of the Italian Vatican writers, maintains that no one enjoys the early obvious support that Ratzinger did at the last conclave.

Allen also draws attention to Tornielli’s colleague, Giacomo Galeazzi, who in a separate piece in La Stampa, points out the obvious, that even if there are 38 voting cardinals from the Roman Curia voting as one in this conclave, they number well short of a two-thirds majority, which also means they are in a position to stop the election of a candidate, but not impose their own.

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