Phil Lawler speculates on next Vat. Sec. of State

From Off the record:

The announcement, we're told, will come very soon. Who will it be?

The ideal candidate [for Vatican Secretary of State] would be:

• Someone the Pope knows well, and trusts. Someone with whom he has worked closely.
• Italian. Since 1979 it has been possible to think of a non-Italian Pope; it's not yet possible to think of a non-Italian Secretary of State.
• A cardinal, preferably papabile. This job commands enormous respect, and the man holding the post will be on every short list of potential successors to the current Pontiff. If he already appeared on last year's lists, so much the better.

One man neatly fills all those criteria: Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone of Genoa. He's Italian, he's a cardinal, he's widely respected, and he's the former secretary of the CDF, where he served for 7 years under you-know-whom. Sure enough, that's the name that friends in Rome keep hearing mentioned. [More...]

The magic holy 8-ball says the appointment will come in early June...