As Pope John Paul II remains hospitalised, the names of prelates from Asia, Africa and Latin America, including that of an Indian archbishop, figure in the list of those who are likely to succeed him, a media report said.
Mumbai's archbishop Ivan Dias, a friend of Mother Teresa, figures in the list, international weekly magazine BusinessWeek said in an article titled Why The Next Pope May Be A Surprise.
When contacted, Dias' office dismissed the report as 'rubbish' and said the archbishop will not entertain interviews on the matter.
The College of Cardinals will select a Pope when John Paul passes on.
But when the time comes for a conclave to anoint a new pontiff to lead the world's 1.1 billion Catholics, John Paul's influence will still be considerable, the weekly said. He has appointed 115 of the 120 cardinals eligible to elect the next Pope, all with an eye to enforcing his conservative stance on issues like abortion, the role of women in the church, homosexuality, and bioethics, it said.
The papal prospects also include Nigeria's Francis Arinze, a conservative and Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, a Honduran known for his work with the poor.
Another newspaper, The Australian, commented that after a globe-trotting multi-lingual Pope, the media-handling and language skills of the new pope will be more important than ever.
Honduran Rodriguez Maradiaga, for instance, speaks Spanish, near-perfect English and Italian, and decent French, Portuguese, German and Greek, while Dias speaks 16 languages.
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