Richard John Neuhaus writing in the magazine after the funeral for Pope John Paul II, reporting “the state of the chatter”:
Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires is high on every list. Known as an incisive thinker and intensely holy man living an austere life, it is held against him that he is a Jesuit, although he has suffered the slings and arrows of fellow Jesuits of a more “progressive” bent. No member of a religious order has been elected pope since 1831.
Update: Our alert intern Tristyn Bloom points out that Matthew Schmitz quoted the version from RJN’s book Catholic Matters on Friday. Which I’d missed because, um, last Friday was Good Friday. This quote I came across while looking for something else entirely and thought interesting that Father Neuhaus had heard his name seriously proposed then.
