Huge Job, but Pell Unlikely to Be Pope

By Jordan Baker
The Australian
February 17, 2013

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/huge-job-but-pell-unlikely-to-be-pope/story-e6frg6n6-1226579395131

Sydney Cardinal George Pell Source

THE new Pope must save the Catholic Church from waning influence amid the evils of modern society - and may well be an Italian - says Cardinal George Pell, one of the 117 men who will elect a new pontiff next month.

In an exclusive interview, Cardinal Pell said the vote was "enormously important for the Church".

"If we go under, we surrender to the tides that are breaking up families, decreasing the birth rate, the challenges of alcoholism and drugs and pornography. If we collapse or we wobble disastrously, it won't be for the good of the western world at all," he said.

Cardinal Pell will fly to Rome on Friday, where he will meet other cardinals before being secluded inside the Vatican's Sistine Chapel to choose a replacement for the retiring Pope Benedict.

There are factions - Cardinal Pell describes it as "different schools of thought" - and this will be evident in the discussions among cardinals, although he says the lobbying has not yet begun.

When it comes time for the votes, the cardinals gather in the Sistine Chapel for as long as it takes to reach a two-thirds-plus-one majority.

It's considered bad form for a cardinal to put forward his own name, and there is no short list when voting starts - over a series of votes names are culled until a decision is reached. This will be Cardinal Pell's second conclave vote.

Last time, he wasn't nervous as he cast his vote in an urn atop the altar, beneath Michelangelo's Last Judgment.

"It wasn't as though I was making the decision by myself. The cardinals have experience and leadership. They are seriously religious people - overwhelmingly a wise group, and a group that's lived through a lot," said Cardinal Pell, who will cast Australia's only vote.

He says although the Catholic Church is growing in Asia, South America and Africa, the time may not yet be right to elect a pope from the developing world.

"Certainly I don't know how long or when, but in the next 100 years there will certainly be a pope or popes from South America, possibly or less likely from an Asian country," he said.

"That's not where you start - you start looking for the best man, the best bishop, to become the Bishop of Rome.

"The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, so I don't think in the future we'll see a succession of non-Italian popes going on for centuries, and if there is a 'good' Italian - good in inverted commas - a very suitable Italian cardinal, I think he always has something of a head start."

The Archbishop of Milan, Angelo Scola, has been frequently mentioned as a strong candidate by observers.

Cardinal Pell is often touted in Australia as a potential pope, but in reality his chances are slim, says Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge.

"I don't think he is a realistic possibility," he said. "He'll be an influential voice in discussion (but) I'm not sure he would fit the profile they would be assembling now."