Among the European cardinals, Hungary’s Péter Erdõ is the favorite in the conclave to be elected as the next Pope, according to the ‘Italian Insider’ that says 60-year-old Erdõ could be pontiff for a long time. Hungarian circles dismiss the idea.
“Nobody had thought of this until now,” a well-placed source close to the papal apartment in the Apostolic Palace told the English language paper, “but Cardinal Erdõ looks very much like the favourite to succeed Benedict among Europeans.”
Acoording to the paper, at age 60, Erdõ, would be considered a candidate for a lengthy pontificate to provide stability after the surprise resignation, effective as of the end of February, by Benedict XVI rocked the Roman Catholic Church.
The Hungarian primate also would conform, like Benedict, with the wish by the previous, great pope, John Paul II of Poland, that a European should remain on St. Peter’s throne to ensure the future of the Church and its spiritual leadership of the old continent, Vatican watchers told the paper.
Péter Erdõ is president of the Council of Episcopal Conferences of Europe. He was born in Budapest, June 25, 1952, the first of six children. He was ordained in 1975 and studied in Rome from 1977 to 1980. For the next eight years, he taught as a professor of theology and canon law at the seminary of Esztergom and held guest lectures at several foreign universities.
Erdõ served in the Hungarian Episcopal Conference as Secretary of the Commission of Canon Law in 1986, and later as its President in 1999. John Paul made him a Cardinal Priest in 2003 and he took part in the papal conclave that elected Benedict in 2005.
In contrast with what the Italian paper learned, the Hungarian news site index.hu says that Hungarian Catholic circles do not count on such eventuality. For them, one reason is Malachi's biblical prophecy that the last Pope will be Peter II. – to be followed by the final judgment.


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