Potential popes line up

2005-04-15 22:30

Vatican City - Three days before the Vatican opens its ultra-secret conclave to elect the next pope, the list of "papabile" - possible candidates - continued to grow on Friday.

Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the former Vatican number two, appeared to enter the fray as conservatives who want to continue Pope John Paul II's hard line on social issues squared off against a more progressive camp.

Sodano is thought to enjoy the support of Latin American cardinals and could shift enough votes to the liberals currently backing Milan Archbishop Dionigi Tettamanzi, analysts said.

The conservative camp is led by German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, while the progressives' presumed popemaker - or future pope - is Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, Tettamanzi's predecessor in Milan.

While Ratzinger insists on the centrality of the pope and the Curia, 78-year-old Martini is in favour of greater powers for bishops and local churches.

Martini and Ratzinger are thought to have equal support, but far short of the 77 votes they need as many of the 115 cardinals to take part in the conclave remain undecided.

Dissident Swiss theologian Hans Kuengs aid on Thursday that he doubted that Ratzinger - who has been dubbed "God's Rottweiler" for his ultraconservative views - stood a chance of winning, but that an "openly progressive" candidate would also be blocked.

This may lead to an echo of the election that produced John Paul II in 1978, when the two Italian frontrunners, Giuseppe Siri and Giovanni Benelli, were unable to muster the necessary support.

As the front-runners fall away in early rounds of voting the conservatives are likely to put forward Venice Patriarch Angelo Scola, 63, or Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, 60.

Waiting in the wings on the other side are Lisbon Patriarch Jose Da Cruz Policarpo, 69, and 62-year-old Honduran Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga.

A Vatican press release on Friday said they had "dedicated the entire morning to an exchange of ideas on the problems of the Church and of the world".

Press reports on Friday said the cardinals were warned by a papal preacher to rein in their personal ambitions.

The blunt warning came in a "meditation" delivered on Thursday by Franciscan priest Raniero Cantalamessa, the preacher to the papal household.

"Don't be ambitious" or be tempted to "promote yourselves," or the conclave will descend into chaos, Cantalamessa reportedly said in his stern admonition.

Meanwhile workmen installed a chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel on Friday for the smoke signals that will indicate whether a new pope has been elected.

If the cardinals do not obtain the required two-thirds majority vote, black smoke will rise from the chimney.

White smoke and bells will indicate success, to be followed soon afterward by a joyous announcement from the balcony above Saint Peter's Square of "habemus papam!" (We have a pope!).

- AFP