The Mood in the Vatican

Inside the Vatican has released a report describing the general mood in Rome:

When a sailboat is becalmed on a quiet bay, the sails no longer flap, the rigging no longer whines, and a pleasing silence descends. One can rest and wait, knowing the wind will pick up again soon, straining the sails, making the ropes sing, slicing the boat's prow through the black water.

Today was like that in Rome. Yesterday was, too, and tomorrow seems likely to be as well.
...
La Repubblica, the leading Rome daily, yesterday morning set everyone chattering with a piece by Marco Politi saying this: that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was the present "front-runner" with some 40 cardinals ready to vote for him, perhaps even 50, due to the support of Cardinal Camillo Ruini of Rome, Cardinal Angelo Scola of Venice, and three cardinals from the Roman Curia, Cardinals Julian Herranz of Spain, and Alfonso Lopez-Trujillo and Dario Castrillon-Hoyos of Colombia.

Politi claimed that Ratzinger had made it known that he did not want to endure a long series of failed votes, which would suggest that a large number of cardinals did not really want to elect him, so he had indicated he would withdraw his candidacy if he did not reach a two-thirds majority on the first few ballots.

Politi said Ruini and Scola had joined the "Ratzinger group" in order to block the election of Dionigi Tettamanzi, the diminutive cardinal archbishop of Milan.

La Stampa of Turin yesterday reported that another strong Italian candidate besides Tettamanzi was Ennio Antonelli of Florence.

Politi reported that Vatican Secretary of State Angelo Sodano had spoken to the 137 cardinals for a full three hours about the world political and diplomatic situation, but had never once mentioned the Holy See's opposition, ordered by Pope John Paul, to the US attack on Iraq in 2003.

In a second article, also yesterday, Politi argued that Sodano was a strong candidate, an alternative to Ratzinger.

He concluded his piece by arguing that Cardinal Walter Kasper was "silently" emerging as a possible candidate, partly because of the good work he has done in building bridges toward the East, and toward the Russian Orthodox in particular.

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