FSM, Forgive him, for he don’t know what he’s saying…
I don’t think there’s ever any official “short list” at all. In principle, all of the cardinals assembled in the college could all be divinely inspired to pick Joseph Schmo of Hoboken, New Jersey, whom nobody had ever heard of before.
Now, in practice, it’s possible to make pretty good guesses as to a short list (if nothing else, it’s almost always a cardinal), but since any old person or group can make such guesses, such a “short list” could come out at any time.
See Gregory X, a/k/a Teobaldo Visconti, who was not even a priest when he was elected (but he was at least an archdeacon). Highly unusual situation – the College had been deadlocked for three years and Teobaldo was a compromise candidate.
They could really use their own Gorbachev to bring in some much-needed and long-overdue reform.
Gorbachev is a bad name to drop to an authoritarian institution that wants to survive.
Can I request someone who isn’t so god damned creepy? JP2 looked like an old man, Ratzinger looks like he just finished throwing hoverpulpits at Yoda and is about to go eat some roasted orphan.
-Joe
Not when he was elected, he didn’t, as this image, when he was just elected, and this one show. Those of us who were around at the time (I know, I’m entering codger-ville 
) remember him as a very dynamic guy - the pope, skiing?
By the end of his life, he was an old man - he was 85 when he died.
Does anyone else keep reading the thread title as “Who are the front runners for the next Dope?”
There’s the problem. It should be canon law that when you hit 70, you go to the Pope Farm upstate.
There’s also Grumpy, Sneezy, Doc-- I’d cast white smoke for Doc. He’s had some secular education and understands basic laws of responsibility, being a Doc and all.
too many candidates for a list.
Somehow the idea of the utter dissolution of the Catholic Church doesn’t fill me with even a tiny hint of dread.
That’s actually usually the big question that comes up when it comes time to select a new Pope, whether they’ll choose some octagenarian that will be dead before he has time to do anything, or a younger guy who would have time to make reforms, but who they’ll basically be stuck with for a couple of decades if he ends up being a mess.
Obviously during the last election they went the former route.
Ok, so admittedly, that was just a list. Here are the ten of them in detail.
Odilio Scherer is Archbishop of Sao Paolo. He’s generally considered a theological moderate. He’s been in the news lately both for his opposition to a Brazilian law that allows fetuses with anencephaly to be aborted, and made a public statement supporting the pope and saying that the Catholic church doesn’t cover abuse.
Ennio Antonelli is the President of the Pontifical Council for the Family. He’s considered a theological moderate concerned with social justice and poverty issues. He’s spoken out in defense of the traditional family, saying that it’s under attack by divorce, unmarried parents, and gay marriage, but has also said that a voter should be more concerned with a candidate’s issues than whether he or she is divorced.
Marc Oellet is Archbishop of Quebec. He’s generally considered a theological conservative. He’s argued that society, especially Quebec society, has grown too secular, and that the Catholic church in Quebec is persecuted because its opponents can’t deal with the fact that the Church tells the truth about God and values. He made a public apology saying that the Church in Quebec in the past has contributed to sexism, racism, homophobia, and indifference to the needs of First Nations.
Wilfrid Napier is a Franciscan and Archbishop of Durban. He’s spoken out against the South African government’s AIDS policy, saying that the distribution of condoms is ineffective and that the government should instead promote abstinence, and he’s been critical of the Church’s failure to deal with Africa and African issues.
Angelo Scola is Patriarch of Venice. He’s written extensively on a number of topics, and has said that it’s necessary for the Church to take an active role in public affairs and that Catholic teachings “are interwoven with human affairs in every age, demonstrating the beauty and fecundity of the faith for everyday life.”
Phillippe Barbarin is Archbishop of Lyon. I don’t really know what his positions are, but he’s spoken out for more protection and tolerance of immigrants, further ecumenicism, and denying Communion to Catholic politicians who support policies contrary to Catholic teachings.
Oscar Maradiaga is Archbishop of Tegucigalpa. He’s known for his outspoken advocacy of human rights and international debt forgiveness. He’s made statements that denying Communion to Catholic politicians who support abortion isn’t an issue, because those politicians, for their support of abortion, are automatically excommunicated. He was an early supporter of Zelaya, but then changed his position, claiming that Zelaya, instead of helping the poor, only helped himself, and that he had been contaminated by the ideas of Hugo Chavez.
Christoph Schoenborn is Archbishop of Vienna. He’s widely seen as a theological moderate. He’s called for closer ties to the Orthodox churches, and said that while the use of condoms are never ideal and always an evil, it’s a lesser evil to use them if you think that you might have an STD rather than spreading it. He’s also condemned the SSPX, basically calling them a bunch of reactionary anti-semites.
Agustino Vallini is Vicar General of Rome. I’m having trouble finding his positions, but I know he condemned a Roman High School for having a vending machine that sold condoms.
Jose Policarpo is Patriarch of Lisbon. He supports further ecumenicism, but he stays out of the public eye.
The only two that would give ME hope (with the understanding that just about everything I believe (or don’t believe) would give the average 90-year-old retired priest a heart attack) are Schoenborn and Policarpo, and I’m fairly sure they both would STILL be too conservative for me on most issues. And, frankly, I’m only including the latter because of the ecumenism, which this current pope has apparently downgraded severely from the JPII era.
Maybe we’ll get a lady this time!
Eh, the last one didn’t work out so well.
A woman who would dress like that is no lady!
John Paul II has only himself to blame for that. His personal view of ecumenism was not reflected in his actions. He spent his entire pontificate turning the church into a bastion of cardinals, bishops, and priests who, if they did not kowtow to his direction of conservative Catholocism, were punished.
He wasted no time after his election; for example, Fr. Drinan was ordered to remove himself from the U.S. House in 1980 - all priests were ordered to remove themselves from electoral politics - and it only got worse. The goal of JPII was to entirely reverse the movement of the church that took place during the reigns of John XXIII and Paul VI, and he succeeded completely.
In my opinion, it wil take the church a century to recover from the disaster that was JPII.
Oh, believe me, I have more than enough criticism reserved for Mr. Wojtyla himself.