With the elevation of Wisconsin Archbishop James Harvey to Cardinal on Saturday, which raises the number of Americans in the College of Cardinals to 11, speculation is rising that the next pope could come from the U.S.
The Associated Press is reporting that the American influence in Rome is growing, and along with it, the chances that one of our own could be named successor to Pope Benedict XVI.
Cardinal James Harvey with Pope Benedict XVI
The newest Cardinal, James Harvey, 63, is currently serving as the prefect of the papal household in Rome. Cardinal Harvey was the immediate superior to the pope’s butler, Paolo Gabriele, who is serving 18 months in a Vatican jail for leaking the pope’s private papers to the press. After Saturday’s elevation, he will now be assuming the duties of archpriest of one of the Vatican’s four Roman basilicas.Aside from Harvey, the new cardinals are: Abuja, Nigeria Archbishop John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan; Bogota, Colombia Archbishop Ruben Salazar Gomez; Manila, Philippines Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle; Patriarch of Antioch of the Maronites in Lebanon, His Beatitude Bechara Boutros Rai; and the major Archbishop of the Trivandrum of the Siro-Malankaresi in India, His Beatitude Baselios Cleemis Thottunkal.
Benedict said Saturday that the new cardinals represent the ‘unique, universal and all-inclusive identity’ of the Catholic Church.
“In this consistory, I want to highlight in particular the fact that the church is the church of all peoples, and so she speaks in the various cultures of the different continents,” he told the crowd in St. Peter’s Square.
Harvey’s appointment to the College of Cardinals, whose duty it will be to elect the next pope, will give Americans more of a voice in the consistory. American cardinals now represent almost 10 percent of the voters in the next election. Of the 120 members of the consistory under the age of 80, more than half – 62 – are European.
Could this mean that an American might be elected the next pope?
Catholic author and columnist George Weigel told NBC News that he doubts it: “The prominence of American cardinals in the current college reflects the vitality of the Catholic Church in the United States. But I don’t think it likely that any American will be elected pope for as long as the United States remains the world’s pre-eminent power.”
However, the current makeup of the consistory gives strong clues as to what kind of pope will head the world’s largest Church in the future. Of the 120 voting-age cardinals now in place, 67 were named by Benedict, ensuring that our next pope will likely be from the same mold.
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