OK, since Baltar's a little interested I'll run down Allen's views of what he sees as the 4 parties in the College. These are important because while from a typical US perspective most are dominated by "conservatives" they have different priorities. And none of them has enough support to dominate the conclave. Remember that it takes a 2/3 vote to win election as pope. Well, actually John Paul II has changed that to make it just a majority vote after a certain period of time, but the consensus seems to be that it's unlikely the voting will go on that long. Anyway, I've described the main parties below.
The Border Patrol group: Theological conservatives most concerned with relativism and secularization. They are strongly focused on doctrine. Leaders of this group include Ratzinger, Dias and Schonborn.
The Salt of the Earth party: Focused on life outside the church, not as much on intraecclesiastical debates inside it. There are two wings to this group. The Right wing thinks politics and culture should be wholly ordered according to the teachings of the Church. The Left wing of this group is interested in social justice issues, globalization, debt relief, etc. As examples of the cardinals from these groups you have Rivera Carrera of Mexico, Sodano of Italy and Lopez Trujillo of Colombia on the right, and Sin of the Philippines, Fox of South Africa, and maybe McCarrick of the U.S. on the left. Rodriguez of Honduras has ties to both of these sides.
The Reform Party: Interested in letting local churches and dioceses have more independence from Rome. These are the cardinals most concerned with "collegiality", and of course depending on where the localities are they might move either to the right or the left of Rome. In this camp you've got Daneels of Belgium, Kasper and Lehmann of Germany, Martini of Italy, and Mahony of the U.S.
Posted by armand at July 7, 2004 11:28 AM | TrackBack | Posted to BooksYou list only three parties. Are the left and right wings of the "Salt of the Earth" party to be considered separate parties, or am I missing something?
Do the parties reflect their congregations, or is their some sort of disconnect between the leadership and the people?
Posted by: Baltar at July 7, 2004 01:30 PM | PERMALINKI think he means the two sides of Salt of the Earth to be two parties. And as best as I can tell "the people" have next to nothing to do with politics at this level of the church (and the Border Patrolers are particularly vigilant in keeping it that way).
Posted by: at July 7, 2004 04:50 PM | PERMALINKAnd if I haven't mentioned it yet, just to be clear, there are some cardinals who don't fit firmly into particular camps, and some who have ties to multiple camps. These are unofficial groupings after all. Allen's point is that the winning candidate will have to be someone who can unite large chunks of multiple factions. As to who that will be -- Tettamanzi? Bergoglio? Hummes? -- time will tell.
Posted by: armand at July 7, 2004 04:59 PM | PERMALINK