ROME
National Catholic Reporter
by John L Allen Jr on Jun. 18, 2012 NCR Today
ROME — As a journalist, I pride myself on trying to see things based on the facts as they stand, not as I or someone else might like them to be.
Thus whenever I get the “next pope” question, I try to stay tethered to reality, not floating long-shots that might excite one constituency or another, but pointing to figures who seem to have the best chance of actually being elected.
The problem is that when it comes to the essentially unknowable, it’s tough to be confident about what “reality” actually is. There are no polls, no fundraising reports, no ad buys, nothing empirical other than “buzz” to separate serious contenders from the crowd. Recent history suggests that sometimes those perceived front-runners come through, as in Paul VI and Benedict XVI, but other times dark horses emerge, as in John XXIII and John Paul II.
This is by way of introducing a new papal candidate, who I freely confess has not been featured in any of the latest round-ups of contenders (including my own), and someone who would probably be an afterthought in most conversations in Rome about who might come next.
(For the record, there’s no sign of a health crisis around Benedict which would suggest a transition is imminent. It’s just that with an 85-year-old pope, the question can’t help but come up.)
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