Phil Brennan, NewsMax.com
Monday, April 18, 2005

In an exclusive interview with NewsMax from Rome, Flynn says there will be an African or Latin American Pope someday – but the time is not now.

Flynn thinks the cardinals – many of whom he knows on a first name basis – will choose Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as the new Pope.

Flynn, a close friend of the late John Paul II, told NewsMax the German Ratzinger was one of the cardinals closest to the late Pontiff, has the exact qualifications the times call for, and will continue many of John Paul II's initiatives.

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"This is going to be a very interesting Conclave. Going into it, Cardinal Ratzinger is the odds on favorite," Flynn said.

"I say that because the cardinals were all here while the Pope was suffering and when he died and they witnessed this extraordinary demonstration of respect for John Paul II just before and after he died and at the funeral. According to the chief of police here in Rome there were 8 million people here who came from all over the world."

Flynn, a former mayor of Boston has emerged as America's preeminent Catholic layman. He heads Catholic Citizen, a non-partisan group that seeks to promote Catholic issues.

Flynn said he was flabbergasted by the incredible hardships those who came to Rome endured, standing in line for 18 to 24 hours just to get a four or five three second view of the Pope's body and say a brief prayer for their beloved Pontiff.

"The cardinals saw all this," Flynn said, "and they say ‘well, what's wrong with the Church? Here we've seen that the Pope left this church in the highest respect .'"

Because of this demonstration, Flynn believes the Cardinals will remember during the conclave that "the closest one to him, theologically, was Cardinal Ratzinger."

Flynn also noted that many Cardinals do not wish to pick a young man, as it will likely lead to a long papacy. Ratzinger fits the bill of on that matter. "He was 78 years old yesterday and you don't want somebody who's going to be the pope for another 26 years," Flynn said.

"The pope was caught up in a whirlwind – there has been a lot of contention – the clergy sex abuse scandal, the war in Iraq, the decline in the number of priests – we might need somebody just to take a deep breath and say I've got a Catholic church here - let's bring Catholics together and let's take a good assessment of where we are and where we are going to go," Flynn said.

"The Catholic church at this point needs a very faithful man, one faithful to traditional catholic teaching. And who at the same time will try to collect the Church's thoughts long term and put in on a steady course of where we want to go from here."

The cardinals, he added, want to get back to basics, to the grass roots.

Noting that in the last concave Karol Wojtyla was never considered a likely candidate and that his name didn't even surface in the first four or five ballots, Amb. Flynn said that the conclave could produce another surprise.

"People keep asking me who I think will be the new pope and I tell them that the one who is going to have the biggest impact on this conclave is the Holy Spirit."

In the end the cardinals, he said, "will make their choice on what is in the best interests of Christ and what is in the best interests of the church."

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