With Christmas behind us, and Lent still weeks away, Vatican observers have too much time on their hands. So, naturally, they’re bird-watching.
From the Washington Times:
Although the Vatican’s anticipated announcement naming a new contingent of U.S. archbishops to the College of Cardinals likely is months away, observers are already placing their bets on which men will get the coveted red hat.
The lingo of horse racing, with words like “handicapping” and “top runners,” is being applied to two men: Washington Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl and Archbishop Raymond L. Burke, prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, the Vatican’s highest court.
Other than the papal throne, the cardinalate is the highest position in the Catholic Church; it is this group of 120 men younger than 80 that elects a new pope.
Cardinals receive the red galero — the distinctive wide-brimmed hat for this office — in a consistory, the gathering in Rome specifically for the purpose of naming these new princes of the Catholic Church. Consistories typically are held every three years on a major Catholic holiday, which is why Vatican watchers are scouring the 2010 calendar for prospective dates.
Check the link to see who else is on the list — and note that one of the papal prognosticators is the esteemed Triple D (Deacon Doctor Ditewig).
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