A Look Ahead

With the passing of Pope John Paul II, the question becomes who will be his successor. Slate, Chicago Tribune and New York Times all speculate on who are the leading contenders. The Washington Post examines the challenges the next Pope faces. While there are a lot of unanswered questions at this time, two things are a near certainty. One, the Pope will not be an American due the baggage of the sex abuse scandal and that America is a superpower. Two, the new Pope will not attempt to impose sweeping reforms on the Church such as allowing woman to be priests or revising the Church's stance on artificial birth control since most of the voter-eligible cardinals are fairly conservative.