October 24, 2003
THE NEXT POPE?:
Word From Rome (John Allen, National Catholic Reporter, 10/24/2003)
Also Oct. 17, CNN conducted an interview with Angelo Scola, the patriarch of Venice, who became a cardinal Oct. 21, and I was invited to tag along....Scola's most fascinating comment came before the cameras rolled, while we were chatting in St. Peter's Square. As we stood there, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna approached and said hello. Schönborn is himself widely mentioned as a papal candidate, and as he walked away, Scola said unexpectedly: "He is the man of the future."
I immediately asked, "In what sense?"
"I think you understood me," Scola replied. "In every sense."
As a footnote, the next day I was with another cardinal chatting in an informal setting, when I happened to recount this exchange with Scola. The cardinal looked at me in great earnest and said: "He's absolutely right."
There is no more worthy successor to John Paul II than Cardinal Schönborn.
Posted by Paul Jaminet at October 24, 2003 2:19 PM
Cardinal Schoenborn spoke at my college's graduation a few years ago. Simply outstanding.
Posted by: Random Lawyer at October 24, 2003 2:55 PMWon't make it. I have nothing against the man, but the favorite almost never makes the final run.
Posted by: Chris at October 24, 2003 3:12 PMWhoever is the next Pope, the Vatican ought to have its collective head examined in inviting Western media to handicap the 'race' for the Holy Father. Camera crews following cardinals are a recipe for disaster. Keep us (even we non-Roman Catholics) in suspense. After all, the papal succession is supposed to be from Peter.
Fred Jacobsen
San Francisco
He was General Editor of the much-bollyhoed Cathechism that came out in the early '90s.
For those of us who have actually read and used it, it's a bit of a disappointment: it lacks clarity. Which the church has been lacking, in my view, at times with the reigning pontiff and his philosophical weirdness of phenomenolism.
They used to be good Thomists, you know.
Posted by: Brent at October 26, 2003 4:13 AMI love the new catechism. It seems to me it describes Catholic theology, which is not always simple, clearly and precisely.
Posted by: pj at October 26, 2003 8:29 AMPJ: My problem is that it's not as exhaustive as I'd like on, for example, the relation of the various Rites to the See, and to the Magisterium as a whole. But I'm a quibbler.
Posted by: Chris at October 27, 2003 10:10 AM