A pre-conclave atmosphere

The Italian minister of foreign affairs has appealed to 25 “vaticanists”, journalists specializing in the affairs of the Holy See, to make known – with all expenses paid – to the embassies and nunciatures that an alternation would be welcome at the next conclave. Clearly speaking this means an Italian pope.

Cardinal Giovanni-Battista Re is presented by progressive journalists as “the man who is on the way up”. In the book, Who will be the next pope? (March 2003), Christian Terras, director of the publication Golias, and Romano Libero, pseudonym of an Italian vaticanist, say: “Re is a tireless worker, who also knows how to listen, a rare quality at the Vatican. One would not expect a veritable evangelical turnaround from him. At the present moment, he is the papabile most capable of maybe one day assuming the charge of Peter.” Giovanni-Battista Re was born in 1934, created a cardinal in 2001 and is president of the Congregation of Bishops.