The Roman Catholic Church, stunned by news Monday that Pope
Benedict XVI will resign at the end of the month, is expected to have a
new leader by Easter.
Speculation about who will be the next leader of the 1
billion-plus-member church has already begun as the church faces a
situation not experienced since the Middle Ages.
That's because the
85-year-old German's resignation will be the first since Celestine V,
who voluntarily stepped down less than a year after becoming pontiff in
1294.
Benedict, who has been in office since April 2005, announced his intent to leave the papacy at a Monday meeting of cardinals.
"After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have
come to the certainty that my strengths due to an advanced age are no
longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry," he told
the cardinals. "I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential
spiritual nature, must be carried out not by words and deeds but no
less with prayer and suffering."
Benedict's eight-year tenure extended the conservative policies and
teachings of his predecessor, Pope John Paul II of Poland, who died in
office. Whether those policies and teachings will be reinforced or
moderated depends on who is the next pope.
It is widely expected that Italian cardinals, stung by the fact that
their peers have twice elected a non-Italian as pope are expected to
push hard for a return of the papacy to one of their own.
However, the
fact that the church is moribund in Italy and much of Europe will give
fresh impetus to cardinals from the Third World, where the church is
growing.
Among those being discussed as possible successors are:
Cardinal Francis Arinze of Nigeria, 80;
Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson of Ghana, 64;
Cardinal Marc Ouellet of Canada, 68;
Cardinal Leonardo Sandri of Argentina, 69;
Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi of Italy, 70;
Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco of Genoa, Italy, 69;
Cardinal Angelo Scola of Milan, Italy, 70;
Cardinal Tarsicio Bertone of Italy, the Vatican's secretary of state, 77;
Cardinal Christoph Schnoborn of Austria, 67;
Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergogli of Argentina, 75;
Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, 62;
Cardinal Albert Malcolm Ranjith of Sri Lanka, 64;
Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera of Mexico, 70; and
Cardinal George Pell of Australia, 70.