Maltese Pope? Archbishop Charles Scicluna Could Very Well Be The Next Leader Of The Catholic Church
Latest gossip within the international network of priests and cardinals is listing five front-runners for the papal race… and one of Malta’s very own is solidly in the running!
John L. Allen, editor of Catholic news site Crux Now, wrote a guest post on American Catholic magazine Angelus highlighting the five individuals who might be in the running to be the next pope.
One of those five front-runners is Malta’s Archbishop Charles Scicluna.
John L. Allen – photo by George Martell
Of course, there’s no real way of knowing who will be the nominated cardinals. And technically, Mons. Charles Scicluna cannot technically be a candidate, because he is not yet a cardinal.
However, Allen highlights Scicluna as a prominent personality on the radar, alongside Sydney’s Archbishop Anthony Fisher.
As far as the three “actual” contenders for the papacy go, it seems like it’s a three-way tie between Italy’s Pietro Parolin, Austria’s Christoph Schönborn and the 74-year-old American Sean O’Malley.
Apart from Scicluna (left), Sydney’s Archbishop Anthony Fisher (right) was also mentioned among the list of potential contenders for the papacy
Scicluna is described as “smart, informed, multilingual, and the real deal as a ‘reformer’.” And that, “despite being remarkably short in physical stature”, Mons. Scicluna has “left a large impression” on the members of the Catholic Church.
The article also points towards Mons. Scicluna’s work as “the Vatican’s top prosecutor on sex abuse and the pope’s lead man in Chile”.
Who knows? With enough clout, maybe the Maltese Archbishop could very well end up climbing to the higher echelons of the Catholic Church worldwide.