Quebec Cardinal could be next pope: analyst

[link to www.nationalpost.com]

When Pope Benedict named Cardinal Marc Ouellet of Quebec City last summer to one of the most crucial jobs in the Vatican, he was praised among Catholics for selecting a man of such high quality, international experience and great sense of the universal Church. The position Cardinal Ouellet was given, considered by many as only second in importance to the papacy itself, was overseeing the selection of the next generation of bishops.

Now, as the Church begins to think of the day when it will be time to pick a successor to Pope Benedict, Cardinal Ouellet's name has come up again -in dramatic fashion. In a story this week by John Allen, considered one of the best analysts of the inner workings of the Vatican, he proposed three men who "are at least among the most commonly cited possibilities" to take over from Benedict should the need arise.

"Ouellet is currently the Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, a powerful position, which should burnish his credentials as someone who could take control of the machinery of the Vatican," wrote Mr. Allen, who is based in Rome for the highly influential National Catholic Reporter. "A veteran seminary professor and theologian, he's a Ratzingerian intellectually, coming out of the same [spiritual mould] as the Pontiff himself.