LOUISIANA
The Times-Picayune
By Dave Walker, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
on March 04,
New Orleans author Jason Berry was scheduled to fly to Rome this past weekend to report for duty Monday (March 4) with ABC News. There, he’ll contribute to the network’s coverage of the papal conclave. His return flight isn’t scheduled until much later in the month, though he said last week that he expects a new pope to be elected sooner than that.
“The rumors I keep hearing are (March 10), but no one knows for sure,” he said.
In addition to consulting and perhaps a few on-camera appearances as an analyst for ABC News, Berry — whose writings include several major entries about the Catholic Church — also will be blogging the events of the next many days for the GlobalPost and National Catholic Reporter.
“You don’t have to be Catholic to be fascinated by the choosing of a pope,” he said. “When Obama won the presidency, people around the world were drawn to it as a global story, because America elected an African-American, much less a guy who is charismatic and brilliant. I think because of the scandals that the church has endured in recent years, many non-Catholics — many Muslims, people in many parts of the world — are going to be following this with unusual interest.”
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