Others have opted to lodge in their national colleges scattered around Rome. The bustling trattorie near St Peters and a couple of the more discreet restaurants in central Rome will be the scenes of strategic dinners.The jockeying for position and outlining of lobbies and powerblocs that preceded a papal election is the subtlest of arts. Outright discussion is forbidden but having all the potential successors and their electors present in Rome provides a unique forum. By the lunchtime break on the first day, 16 Cardinals had asked to take the floor with 12 more due to speak in the late afternoon."What is exceptional this time is that the reigning Pope has created a situation where the contenders debate important issues in public before they find themselves locked in the Sistine Chapel," commented Marco Politi, respected Vaticanista of Rome daily la Repubblica.In a sense the frail and Parkinsons-stricken Pope, who turned 81 last Friday, has stacked the cards in his favour anyway. He has chosen all but ten of the voting Cardinals ensuring a successor will be shaped in his own mould.Vatican watchers note that the possibilities of a pope from Latin America are increasing.
The Latin American lobby is growing eloquent in its demands that the areas with the largest quota of Catholics in the world be listened to. Lucas Moreira Neves, a Brazilian, has been considered a front runner for some time, along with the Colobian Dario Castrillon Hoyos. Norberto Rivera Carrera who is bishop of the key diocese of Mexico City is also a contender, but all eyes and ears this week will be on a new entrant Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga, from Honduras.At 59, he has a background as a pastor and is renowned for defending the rights of the poor, while not exceeding in the "liberation theology" that has marked many Latin American priests. "I'd put the odds of a Latin American pope at fifty fifty," said Marco Politi.However after the Polish interregnum, many commentators say there will be pressure from the Italian clergy (they have 44 cardinals, the highest number of any nation) for an Italian Pope. In pole position would be Giovanni Battista Re, a 67 year old career diplomat, nominated Cardinal in February and head of the powerful Congregation of Bishops. The current secretary of State, Angelo Sodano is another contender.A new entrant in the ranks of the "papabili" is the German Walter Kasper, recently named head of the Congregation for Christian Unity, a tricky portfolio which involves attempts to make peace with the Orthodox church.
Robert Moynihan, who writes for the US Catholic weekly Inside the Vatican said: "He is seen as the man who has the intellectual weight to stand up to and match Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the custodian of church orthodoxy and one of the most influential papal advisers.". Backed by helicopter gunships and tanks, Macedonian troops stepped up their offensive yesterday against ethnic Albanian insurgents in northern villages where thousands of civilians are trapped, shattering pledges of government restraint in quashing the rebel movement. Backed by helicopter gunships and tanks, Macedonian troops stepped up their offensive yesterday against ethnic Albanian insurgents in northern villages where thousands of civilians are trapped, shattering pledges of government restraint in quashing the rebel movement. The fighting centred on Opae. The gunships and tanks shelled ethnic Albanian positions to win control of the one-third of the village in rebel hands. The insurgents responded with machine-gun fire.A Macedonian army spokes- man, Colonel Blagoja Markovski, said the rebels attacked for about an hour at dawn from the nearby villages of Slupcane and Vaksince, using snipers and machine-guns. The military responded with artillery fire.Yesterday afternoon, Macedonian artillery pounded Vaksince, hitting houses in the village and sending gusts of smoke rising. Fighting, the most intense in a week, started with an early-morning drive-by shooting near the village of Rudince.
