US diplomats were "shocked" and "speechless" at Pope Benedict's election, because they had not expected him to muster the necessary support for the papacy, the UK Catholic Herald reports.
According to sensitive State Department docuмents obtained by La Stampa, an Italian newspaper, diplomats at the US Embassy to the Holy See listed 16 papabile, or candidates for the papacy on April 18, 2005, the day the conclave following Pope John Paul II's death began.
The files were released as part of a quarter of a million leaked United States embassy cables which were made public by the Wikileaks website last week, said the Catholic Herald.
Diplomats had drawn up an earlier docuмent for the then Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice only days after John Paul II died, in which they had outlined the likely characteristics of the Pope's successor.
The docuмent, which was classified as "sensitive", described the next Pope as a man who was neither too old nor too young so as to avoid having a funeral and conclave too soon, but also to "avoid a papacy as long as John Paul II's".
The future Pope, they believed, needed to speak Italian in order to control the Vatican's bureaucracy but would not necessarily be Italian. They thought the candidate would unlikely be from Eastern Europe post-John Paul II, or America because of its status as the last remaining superpower.
The future Pope, they wrote, would need to have pastoral experience in order to show his human side and be a good communicator with new media skills.
The Belgian Cardinal Gottfried Daneels was among those considered to be the best candidates. They said Cardinal Daneels "knows how to use a computer" and represents the best compromise between Catholic doctrine and liberalism.
Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi, the Archbishop of Milan, was also considered a likely choice because of his connection with young people, while Colombian Cardinal Dario Castrillon-Hoyos had "organised video conferences with thousands of priests" and was considered "the perfect candidate for those who want a Hispanic who knows the Curia".
As for Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, he would continue to be a "powerful cardinal" and a "guardian of theological orthodoxy", they had believed.
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2010/11/30/popes-election-took-us-diplomats-by-surprise/
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