Peter Erdo, another papal contender
Mar 08, 2013
http://www.italianinsider.it/?q=node/1357
Erdo, 60, is considered the European frontrunner to become the next pope, sources close to Benedict XVI’s entourage said last month. “Nobody had thought of this until now,” a well-placed source close to the papal apartment in the Apostolic Palace told Italian Insider, “but Cardinal Erdo looks very much like the favourite to succeed Benedict among Europeans."...
The conclave, the centuries-old process by which a new Pope is elected, will begin on March 12, meaning Catholics should have a new pontiff by the end of next week....
There is a reformist bloc led by Cardinal Angelo Scola, the archbishop of Milan, which has the backing of many non-Italian cardinals, including Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston, and Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn of Austria.
They have been appalled by revelations of nepotism and cronyism within the Holy See that were revealed by confidential documents stolen from the Pope by his butler and leaked to the media in what was dubbed the Vatileaks scandal.
The reformists are squaring up to a more traditionalist bloc led by Cardinal Odilo Peter Scherer, the archbishop of Sao Paolo in Brazil, and comprising many Italian cardinals, who are resisting calls for radical reform of the Curia, the Church’s governing body....
If the two blocs go head to head when voting starts, the conclave could be a long one because a two-thirds majority is required to elect a new pontiff.
The opposing groups might be forced to accept a compromise candidate with ties to neither bloc — one name being touted is that of Cardinal Peter Erdo, the 60-year-old primate of Hungary and archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest.
