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If you were betting, you'd be in stride with the London markets as there are already odds out and your man is the #1 pick.

Tettamanzi is an Opus Dei person, which is great fodder for the DaVinci Code crowd. Also, other than being another old Italian, I'm concerned about his potential for criticizing capitalism, the lifeblood of modern democracy. And without democracy, would any church be able to thrive?

I hesitate to say this, but the other candidate on the lists (apart from Arinze) I've seen that always seems to catch my eye is Husar. Husar does not seem like a likely choice, but I am not sure I would count him out completely.

I find his position in the election to be full of wonderful contradictions. On the one hand, he is an Eastern Rite Catholic. Some would object to having an Eastern Rite Catholic occupying the Patriarchy of the West, but I don't think it will be the first time a patriarch of one rite will be head of another. I would imagine that an Eastern Rite pope would be a bit conservative liturgically. Being Ukrainian, I find it unlikely that he will preach capitalism as being the source of all evil.

He could also serve as a bridge to the Orthodox. True, there are many Orthodox that would resent a "Uniate" being made pope, but it would also show that the Eastern Rites are not second-class citizens. An Eastern Rite Pope might be more inclined to grant greater amounts of autonomy to the Eastern Rites, showing the Orthodox that we sincerely do not want reunification just so that we can tell them how to run their churches. If anything, it could at least foster the talks that need to occur.

As one last note, I recall that, according to the famous prophecy of St. Malachy, the next pope will be "Gloria Olivae", the Glory of the Olive. I have seen this interpreted in several ways - that he will be Jewish, that he will be Black, that he will a great reconciler (presumably between East and West), etc. The Order of St. Benedict (the Olivetans) claimed that this pope will be a man from their order. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.