BOSTON (MA)
Boston Herald
By
Matt Stout / Boston Herald
The explosion of interest surrounding Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley’s potential to become pope will likely not be the last suggestion of who could be the next pontiff to emerge from the Vatican, where Pope Benedict’s XVI’s resignation has created what experts are calling an “unprecedented” gap in time rife for papal prognostication and politics.
That void — stretching nearly three weeks between Benedict’s Feb. 11 announcement and his official Feb. 28 resignation, and at least a month before the conclave even begins — observers said, lends itself to super-charged speculation over a process that has never experienced the full impact of modern social media.
“It means that there is room for maneuvers, for trial balloons and for head fakes,” said Peter Borre, chairman of the Boston-based Council of Parishes. “I’ve seen in the past disinformation; usually some sources inside the Vatican want to bring down a competitor by either pushing somebody’s name too soon or by splitting a national block.
“I don’t have any pretense to superior insight, but I’ve learned the rules of the road,” he said. “What’s extremely unprecedented is that gap between the Feb. 11 announcement and the start of the conclave.”
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