Theodore Cardinal McCarrick, former Archbishop of Washington during a talk at Villanova University gave the following recollection of a conversation with an "influential" Roman during the period before the Conclave which elected Jorge Bergoglio as Bishop of Rome.
18:20 Just before we went into the general conversations when everybody can talk, a very interesting and influential Italian gentleman came to ask if he could come and see me, so I said “sure.”He came to see me at the Seminary, at the American College where I was staying; and we sat down. He is a very brilliant man, a very influential man in Rome and we talked about a number of things. He had a favour to ask me when I get back to the United States, but then he asked,“What about Bergoglio?”I was surprised at the question, I said, “what about him.”He said, “Does he have a chance?”I said, “I don’t think so, because no one has mentioned his name, he hasn’t been in anybody’s mind, I don’t think it’s on anybody’s mind to vote for him.”He said, “He could do it you know.”I said, “What could he do?”He said, “He could reform the Church, if we gave him five years, he could put us back on target. ““Well, he’s 76.”“Yeah, in five years, if he had five years. The Lord working through Bergoglio in five years could make the Church over again.”I said, “That’s an interesting thing.”“I know you’re his friend.”“Well, I hope I’m his friend.”He said, “Talk him up.”That was the first that I heard from people that Bergoglio would be a possibility in this election.
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Who was and is behind the Dictator who is Pope?I hope that the new, that the one who is elected Pope, will be someone who, if he is not himself a Latin American, would at least have a very strong interest in Latin America”. “Was that part of it? Who knows? What is it my friend said? “Push Bergoglio”? Did he say it to a lot of people? I don’t know.”