Four contenders for the top job in the Vatican

Cardinal Bertello does appear to be in the pole position, but another solution being suggested is that the Pope could appoint a current papal nuncio as his new secretary of state. This would satisfy the so-called circle of diplomats, cardinals and monsignors in the Curia who maintained that Bertone was unfit for the position because he had no diplomatic experience. This arrangement would also meet the need for a significant change in the Vatican’s “engine room” after the Vatileaks scandal.

There are three other contenders widely considered to be in the running for the position of secretary of state: Archbishop Lorenzo Baldisseri, the former papal nuncio to Brazil and the current secretary of the Congregation for Bishops; Archbishop Luigi Ventura, the nuncio to France and formerly the nuncio to Canada; and Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, the president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, who previously served in the Secretariat of State.

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