ROME
National Catholic Reporter
by John L. Allen Jr. | Mar. 15, 2013 All Things Catholic
Although 76-year-old Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires was the one who stepped out onto the balcony overlooking St. Peter’s Square clad in white Wednesday night, there’s a good argument that the real winner of the 2013 conclave wasn’t in Rome, and wasn’t even alive to see the result.
In effect, the landslide winner was actually St. Francis of Assisi.
The case for the 2013 papal election as a tribute to the most iconic saint in Catholic tradition rests on three points.
The O’Malley boom
The biggest surprise of the pre-conclave period was the emergence of Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston as a crowd favorite. As I said during CNN’s broadcast of the Mass Pro Eligendo Romano Pontifice, if the custom of papal election by popular acclamation were still around, it’s entirely possible O’Malley might be the one sitting on the Throne of Peter.
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