VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider
Italian current affairs programme TG2 Dossier broadcast on Saturday evening has unearthed the contents of an interview with the Cardinal of Munich just before the 1978 conclave: “It is crucial to emphasise the local importance of the papal role”
ANDREA TORNIELLI
Vatican City
I would not be in favour of a non Italian Pope…” The interview was referred to again in 1978, just before the death of Paul VI and the conclave of 26 August, in which John Paul I was to be elected Pope. The answer came from a fifty year old German cardinal who had been at the helm of the Diocese of Munich for a year: Joseph Ratzinger. The video was retrieved by Italian current affairs programme TG2 Dossier and will be broadcast tomorrow evening at 23:30 (local Italian time) on Italian television channel Rai 2 as part of a programme dedicated to the Pope on the occasion of his 85th birthday and presented by Enzo Romeo, entitled Benedetto si racconta (Benedict tells his story).
The interviewer had asked the then cardinal Ratzinger: “Do you think you could be elected as a non Italian Pope in the future?” Ratzinger did not exclude the possibility with the papal election result about a month away, following Pope Luciani’s mysterious death but seemed to prefer the idea of an Italian being elected to the position: “Let’s say that broadly speaking it could happen. It has happened in the past. Personally I would not really be in favour of such an election for two reasons. Firstly we must remember that the Pope is the Bishop of Rome. Not only does he have a role that is superior to others, he is also the bishop of a local church, in this case Rome. As bishop of Rome he is also responsible for the Catholic Church in the world. It is important in my opinion to stress the local importance of the papal role. That is that he is first and foremost the bishop of a city and it is crucial to emphasise this.”
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.