VATICAN CITY
Irish Times
PADDY AGNEW in Rome
For the first time, a senior Curia cardinal this morning suggested publicly that the successor to Pope Benedict may well be an African, Asian or Latin American cardinal.
In an interview in this morning’s Rome daily, La Repubblica, Portuguese Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, former Prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation For the Cause of Saints, confirmed the thinking of many Vatican insiders and commentators, saying: “A vast and authoritative range of candidates, who reflect the truly universal and not just European nature of the Church, will present themselves at the Conclave (papal election). Therefore, the big surprise may come from faraway places such as Asia, Africa and Latin America.”
Asked to make a prediction about the forthcoming Conclave, he added: “The next Conclave is open to just about any surprise because this is a Universal Church and.in the end I wouldn’t be surprised if the chosen one ended up being a young Cardinal, like the Filipino Luis Antonio Tagle, or it could be a figure like (Italian Cardinal) Gianfranco Ravasi.”
Both 55-year-old Cardinal Tagle and 70-year-old Cardinal Ravasi, the current President of the Pontifical Council of Culture, have featured prominently on the “papabile” short lists that mushroomed last week.
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