ROME
National Catholic Reporter
by John L. Allen Jr. | Mar. 9, 2013
Rome
If the readers of Italy’s paper of record, Corriere della Sera, had any say in the matter, the choice for the next pope would be clear: Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston.
Corriere today asked eight contributors, including their own Vatican beat writers as well as noted Vatican-watchers, to name their top three picks to be the next pope. O’Malley was mentioned by five of those eight experts, putting him in a tie with Odilo Pedro Scherer of Brazil, and just one mention ahead of Angelo Scola of Milan.
Two other Americans, Timothy Dolan of New York and Donald Wuerl of Washington, got one mention apiece.
Where O’Malley really separated himself from the pack was in an on-line readers’ poll on the Corriere web site. There O’Malley drew 36.7 percent of the vote, as of roughly 6:30 this evening Rome time. The Boston prelate far outpaced Scola with 17.9 percent and Luis Antonio Tagle of the Philippines with 14.3 percent.
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