Cardinal tarnished by secret Chinese pact emerges as front-runner to be Pope

[Pelican Press 0]

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Cardinal tarnished by secret ******** pact emerges as front-runner to be Pope

An Italian cardinal once tainted by a secret deal with China over the appointment of Catholic bishops has emerged as the favourite to be elected pope.

Pietro Parolin, 70, is a seasoned diplomat who served under Pope Francis as secretary of state – effectively the prime minister of the ******** City State.

The odds of him being elected as the successor to the late pope when 133 cardinals enter the Sistine Chapel on Wednesday at the

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are now at 9/4, according to British bookmaker William Hill.

Cardinal Parolin has moved ahead of

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, ********* cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, despite some in the Catholic Church being highly critical of the confidential accord that he negotiated with China’s authoritarian regime.

Catholics in China are split into two camps – those who are members of an underground church that is loyal to Rome and the Pope, and those who belong to a state-sanctioned church that refuses to accept the authority of the pontiff.

Under the deal, struck in 2018 and since renewed several times, ******** officials were given some input into bishops who are appointed by the ********. Critics said the agreement sold out those Catholics who are loyal to Rome and represented a capitulation to Beijing.

But that has not stopped the cardinal from moving to the front of the pack as cardinals from around the world prepare to vote in the first round of

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“If I had to put all my money on red, it’s Parolin, Parolin, Parolin. I am pretty certain that he will win,” a ******** insider told The Telegraph.

“He is attractive because everybody knows him. Everyone has encountered him as a gentle, friendly, balanced, agreeable diplomatic person who knows his way around the ********, who has handled things for 10 years. He is reliable and he is not too aggressively Right and not too aggressively Left.

“If he becomes pope there will be no trouble, no problems, no crisis. He is not going to be a charismatic pope, he will be very dry and diplomatic. But people are looking for safety – we had surprises and charisma for 12 years (under Francis). People want to see the ******** repaired. They want order to be restored.”

A cardinal who is a member of the Curia, the Holy See’s governing body, said: “Parolin is looking like he has the best hand to play. He’s not a divisive candidate and he is picking up votes. The Americans have faith in him. And as a moderate, he can reassure the conservatives on preserving the traditions of the Church. He can also guarantee to the progressives that he won’t roll back Francis’s initiatives,” he told La Stampa newspaper. “He is seen as a ‘first among equals’ rather than someone who wants to be in command on his own.”

The

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– particularly this time around.

Not only is it the largest conclave in history, in terms of the number of cardinals who are eligible to vote, they also represent huge geographical diversity, coming from more than 70 countries.

Of the 133 cardinal electors, 108 were appointed by Pope Francis. Many had not met each other before they were summoned to Rome for his ******** and the conclave.

Adding to the unpredictability is the fact that there are

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against Cardinal Parolin.

He was involved – but not charged – in a disastrous ******** project to buy a former Harrods showroom in London and turn it into luxury flats, a botched deal that resulted in the loss of tens of millions of pounds.

And he has been accused of withholding incriminating Church records relating to Catholic clergy who ********* abused children.

The American watchdog Bishop Accountability claims that requests for information about priests who were accused of ******* abuse went through his office and were frequently blocked.

“It can be fairly said that no Church official in the world has played as pivotal a role in withholding information about sex crimes from civil authorities than Cardinal Parolin,” said Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of the watchdog.

But to his supporters, Cardinal Parolin is a consummate statesman who would help heal the divisions created by Francis’ often unpredictable style of governance and his confusing declarations on issues such as

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and the role of gay people in the Church.

His election would

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after nearly 50 years and three consecutive foreign popes: the Polish John Paul II, the ******* Pope Benedict XVI and the Argentinian Pope Francis, who died on Easter Monday at the age of 88.

Cardinals on Tuesday held their 12th and final meeting ahead of the conclave. They discussed the reforms launched by Pope Francis, the battle against clergy sex abuse, transparency in the ********’s finances and divisions within the Catholic Church. During the meeting, Pope Francis’ fisherman’s ring and his official seal were destroyed in one of the final rites of the transition from his pontificate to the next.

Just before the cardinals enter the Sistine Chapel, the ******** will jam all telecommunications devices, the governorate of the city state announced.

Cardinals are forbidden from using mobile phones, tablets or any other form of communication during the conclave, which is held behind closed doors.

Any breach of the rules results in immediate excommunication.

The use of telecommunications will resume

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with the words “Habemus papam” – Latin for “we have a pope”.

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