Mom of Pope Candidate: My Son Won’t ‘be up to the Bitchiness in the Vatican’

CBS DC
March 12, 2013

http://washington.cbslocal.com/2013/03/12/mom-of-pope-candidate-my-son-wont-be-up-to-the-bitchiness-in-the-vatican/

Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schonborn arrives for a meeting of pre-conclave on March 9, 2013 at the Vatican. (credit: FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP/Getty Images)

As the cardinals enter the conclave to elect a new pope, the mother of one cardinal hopes he won’t be the new leader of the Vatican.

Eleonore Schoenborn, the 92-year-old mother of Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, told an Austrian newspaper that he won’t be able to handle the rigors of leading over 1 billion Catholics.

“Christoph would not be up to the bitchiness in the Vatican,” she told the paper, according to Reuters. “The intrigues in Vienna are enough for him.”

The 68-year-old Schoenborn has been considered a favorite to succeed former Pope Benedict XVI.

“The whole family is afraid that Christoph will be elected pope,” she said, according to Reuters. “I will not see Christoph ever again because I no longer have the strength to travel to Rome.”

One hundred fifteen cardinals will begin voting Tuesday in the Sistine Chapel for a new pontiff. One cardinal must receive 77 votes to become the next pope.

Pope Emeritus Benedict resigned last month, becoming the first pope in nearly 600 years to do so.