FLORIDA
Palm Beach Post
By Lona O’Connor
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
In the constant stream of speculation on who will be the next pope, it was inevitable: Cardinal Sean O’Malley’s name is now being mentioned as a credible candidate to succeed Pope Benedict XVI, who will step down on Feb. 28 for health reasons.
O’Malley was bishop of the Diocese of Palm Beach for eight months in 2002. The 125-member College of Cardinals is expected to meet no later than March 15 to name a successor in an election that is by tradition shrouded in secrecy.
John Allen, a commentator for the National Catholic Register, started the speculation in his Tuesday post:
“Another name has generated a surprising degree of buzz in the Italian press: Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, partly on the strength of his profile as a reformer on the church’s sexual abuse scandals, and partly because of his Capuchin simplicity as a perceived antidote to the Vatican’s reputation for intrigue and power games.”
On Tuesday the betting site Paddy Power gave 33 to 1 odds against O’Malley. That made O’Malley’s chances better than those of New York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan at 66 to 1, but not as good as the two front-runners, Archbishop Angelo Scola of Rome at 2 to 1 and Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana at 5 to 2 odds. Paddy Power betters correctly identified German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as the successor of Pope John Paul II in 2005. Sure enough, Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI.
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