Pope Contender: Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re of Italy
Apr 17, 2005
Usually it’s the cardinal who calls on the pope. But Giovanni Battista Re was so close to John Paul II that the late pontiff once interrupted an Alpine vacation to fly to the Italian cardinal’s hometown.
(Associated Press, April 16th, 2005) The 71-year-old Re, whose last name means “king” in Italian, ranks high on lists of strong contenders to become the next pope.
He has served for years in some of the Vatican’s most powerful offices, including one grappling with the clergy sexual abuse scandals. Even if Re isn’t chosen as pontiff, his views could sway the outcome.
John Paul reached out to his flock whenever he could — from informal Sunday visits to working-class parishes in Rome to jubilant rallies with adoring youths in stadiums around the world. Re, in contrast, has a reputation for churning out paperwork from his offices; in evenings, he can sometimes be seen hobnobbing with VIPs at Rome high-society events.
One shortcoming in his possible candidacy for the papacy is Re’s lack of pastoral experience. Made a bishop in 1987, he worked for years largely behind the scenes in the secretary of state’s office in the Apostolic Palace, a post that allowed him to draw close to the pope.
Twin appointments by John Paul on the same day in 2000 dramatically raised Re’s profile.
In the more high-profile post, Re became head of the Congregation for Bishops. In that capacity he advised John Paul about selections to head dioceses worldwide to help shepherd the Church’s 1.1 billion flock.
But Re also inherited some of the fallout over the Church’s failure to move swiftly against bishops accused of protecting priests — in the United States and elsewhere — accused of sexual abuse. The Church’s handling of the scandals was a major blot on John Paul’s papacy in the eyes of those who accused Rome of inaction.
Re was part of the team of top Vatican officials who huddled with U.S. cardinals when the Americans came to Rome in April 2002 to meet with the pope about the sex abuse scandal. Six months later, it was Re who signed a Vatican demand that U.S. bishops revamp their get-tough policy on sexual abusers in the priesthood.
In a break from his bureaucratic image, Re led a procession of some 2,000 Indian Catholics through the streets of a Mexican town and danced Mayan dances as the Vatican sought to assure villagers that the Church is aware of their poverty.
Pope Contender: Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re of Italy