VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Agency
Vatican City, Dec 4, 2014 / 07:07 pm (CNA).- The 2013 papal conclave that elected Pope Francis is news again now that four cardinals have denied a new book’s claim that they campaigned for Pope Francis to be elected – though the book’s author has clarified the Pope himself was not a part of their supposed campaign.
The London-based Catholic journalist Austen Ivereigh, in his new book “The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope,” contends that a group of cardinals on what he bills as “Team Bergoglio” worked during the last conclave to promote the election of Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires as Pope.
According to Ivereigh, Cardinals Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, Walter Kasper, Gottfried Daneels and Karl Lehmann orchestrated a behind-the-scenes lobbying campaign which led to the election of Pope Francis.
Ivereigh wrote that the members of “Team Bergoglio” toured private dinners and other gatherings of cardinals the day before the conclave.
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