Latin American cardinals ready to fight for John Paul II sucession

Brazil's President, Lula Da Silva, declared on Monday that he would like to see a Latin American Pope

Latin America is the region of the world where more Roman Catholics live and that's why many specialists in Vatican issues believe the next Pope could come from there. The possibility that the next pope could be a Latin American, is creating a buzz from Mexico City to Buenos Aires, from Tegucigalpa to Brasilia. Many Latin American Catholics said the only way to improve on a papacy they overwhelmingly supported would be to select someone from their own ranks.

The Italo-Argentinian Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, sounds as one of the Latin American cardinals with more chances of being elected Pope at this month conclave in Rome. Bergoglio has repeatedly refused to comment about those versions and has not even confirmed when he would travel to Rome to attend to the conclave that counts him as one of the electors. “We are not going to make public the date of his trip”,  Bergoglio's spokesman told Pravda.Ru at the end of a mass in honour of John Paul II.

Among the most Latin American papabili are, apart from Bergoglio, the Brazilian Archbishop of Sao Paulo, Cardinal Claudio Hummes, and the Honduran Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga. Hummes made calls for a deep reform in the Catholic Church to modernize its structures and promote a closer relationship with the faithful.

Rodriguez Madariaga said, in turn, that only God knows the name of the next Pontiff, but that he was happy about the comments on his person “so the world knows that also good things come from Honduras.”

Brazil's President, Lula Da Silva, declared on Monday that he would like to see a Latin American Pope and “if he is a Brazilian, the better.” But Claudio Hummes is seen as a “leftist reformist” by the orthodox hierarchy in The Vatican, which reduces his chances. However, his name sounded strong among the progressive circles of The Vatican.

Also ranking high by commentators are other third world popes coming from Asia and Africa, regions where the Catholic Church is seeing and explosive growth. "We hope that perhaps the cardinals when they meet will follow the first non-Italian pope by electing the first African pope," Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu said on Sunday from Cape Town, South Africa.

By the time being, only comments and ungrounded speculations can come as the succession is only at its beginning. As cardinals like to say, only God through the Holy Spirit will declare a winner, but the race has already started.

On the photo: The Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio