Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Possible Popes include a Cuban and an Indian

Recalling that Polish Cardinal Karol Wojtyla made almost no top-contender lists the last time a pope was chosen, prognosticators this time are casting a wide net — along with a dozen front-runners, cardinals from Cuba, Canada, India, even Indonesia have been mentioned.
At a time when the Vatican
is trying to broaden its dialogue with Islam, Julius Riyadi Darmaatmadja, 70, of Indonesia, is distinctive as one of the few cardinals from a predominantly Muslim country. Ivan Dias, 68, the archbishop of Bombay, India, also comes from a populous country with relatively few Catholics, though much of his career has been spent as a Vatican diplomat, serving in Africa, South Korea and Albania.

Wilfrid Fox Napier, 64, a black South African, was a low-key opponent of apartheid during the era of white-minority rule and more recently has questioned Vatican efforts to limit the decision-making of local bishops. Most experts, however, rate Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze as Africa's only serious candidate.

Two cardinals from Canada have been mentioned in some circles, though the prospects for a North American pope seem slim.

Marc Ouellet, the archbishop of Quebec City, is relatively young for a contender, at 60, but has taught and studied in Europe and South America. Both he and Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte of Montreal have spoken forcefully against Canada's moves to legalize same-sex marriage.

There are a raft of contenders — some front-runners, some long-shots — to be the first Latin American pope. The region's dark horses include Cardinal Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino, the archbishop of Havana, who helped organize the first papal visit to Communist Cuba in 1998 and negotiated modest openings with a government that was once officially atheist.

Ortega, 68, his risen far from humble origins as a sugar worker's son. He is fluent in French and a skilled pianist, cutting an elegant and generally nonconfrontational figure in Cuban society.

More details at Yahoo news.

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