Buzz about Potential Pope Unprecedented

By Matt Stout
Boston Herald
February 21, 2013

http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2013/02/buzz_about_potential_pope_unprecedented

The explosion of interest surrounding Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley’s potential to become pope will likely not be the last suggestion of who could be the next pontiff to emerge from the Vatican, where Pope Benedict’s XVI’s resignation has created what experts are calling an “unprecedented” gap in time rife for papal prognostication and politics.

That void — stretching nearly three weeks between Benedict’s Feb. 11 announcement and his official Feb. 28 resignation, and at least a month before the conclave even begins — observers said, lends itself to super-charged speculation over a process that has never experienced the full impact of modern social media.

“It means that there is room for maneuvers, for trial balloons and for head fakes,” said Peter Borre, chairman of the Boston-based Council of Parishes. “I’ve seen in the past disinformation; usually some sources inside the Vatican want to bring down a competitor by either pushing somebody’s name too soon or by splitting a national block.

“I don’t have any pretense to superior insight, but I’ve learned the rules of the road,” he said. “What’s extremely unprecedented is that gap between the Feb. 11 announcement and the start of the conclave.”

National Catholic Reporter’s John L. Allen Jr. — whose blog post Tuesday examining the growing Italian buzz around O’Malley kicked off more speculation stateside — said what has usually been a 15-day process between a pope’s death and conclave has essentially doubled this time.

And now with even cardinals taking to Twitter, the chatter around who’s next “is more wide open and sprawling,” he said.?“It’s simply a lot easier for people to get information, even than eight years ago” when Benedict was named pope, said Allen, who recounted a recent conversation with a cardinal about possible contenders — and the cardinal saying he’d have to Google them.

“Most of them will tell you casting that ballot in the Sistine Chapel is the most important thing they will do in their life,” he said. “They will be reading what’s in the papers.”