LATIN AMERICA
Washington Post
Posted by Juan Forero and Nick Miroff on February 11, 2013
Across Latin America, the pope’s announcement that he will step down at the end of the month is drawing official comment as well as some speculation that the next pope could come from the region. Forty percent of all Catholics are in Latin America, and clergymen from Brazil, Mexico and Argentina are considered contenders for a church that is shrinking in Europe but growing in many developing countries.
The president of the Episcopal Conference of Bishops in Venezuela said the move served “as a good example” for having shown that it is best to resign in the face of hobbling incapacity. In public comments, Archbishop Diego Padron also said the pope had the interest of the church and its renovation in mind. “The pope doesn’t usually give out news in pieces,” Padron said.
It was not lost on Venezuelans that Padron’s message could have been as easily directed at President Hugo Chavez as to Venezuela’s Catholics. That’s because the ailing Chavez hasn’t been heard or seen by Venezuelans since undergoing a complicated cancer surgery in Cuba two months ago. Since then, the government has only released news on Chavez’s condition in dribs and drabs, delivering few hard facts about the president’s prognosis. That remains a state secret.
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