No talks yet of new pope

2005-02-27 20:32

Washington - It would be "irresponsible" not to think about a successor to ailing Pope John Paul II, although US Roman Catholic leaders have not discussed names of possible candidates, US Cardinal Francis George said on Sunday.

"As his health weakens, naturally it would be irresponsible not to think about that, at least in your own heart and in your own prayers," Cardinal Francis George, the archbishop of Chicago, told Fox News.

But, he added, "We haven't spoken about possible names among ourselves, the seven American cardinals."

To pick the right successor, he said, "you have to start, not with people, but rather what are the challenges to the mission of the church".

"When Karol Wojtyla was elected, the great challenge to the mission of the church was communism," the cardinal said, referring to the Polish pope's birth name.

"They elected somebody who knew it from the inside and had experienced it and knew it intellectually better than the Marxists themselves."

It is up to the pope, who underwent surgery on his throat last week and has been hospitalised since Thursday, to decide when he should quit, George said.

"The pope is a very strong man, and so he's surprised people for years with his ability to recuperate," he said, although he added that there is anxiety that "his difficulty in breathing will affect his own future ability as pope".

"The pope is free; he's the only one that can say, 'I've now resigned.'

"And we have to have a certain trust also in God's providence over his church that we won't be left at an impasse," George said.

- AFP