Sean O’Malley for Pope?

AGAIN, this is not an endorsement.

BUT I notice a BOOMLET developing for Boston’s Cardinal O’Malley.

This time, I know enough about the candidate to have plenty of confidence in his saintliness, integrity, scholarly excellence, theological soundness, and evangelical orientation and dedication. He’s also the most techno-savvy of the CARDINALS, with his own BLOG and all.

The objection to an American pope has always been that the result would be the impression that a single superpower controls both the temporal and spiritual realms through the CIA.

But America’s power is no longer so super. And the least you can say today is that the CHURCH and STATE in our country are not in cahoots.

An Irish-American Capuchin pope with a Ph.D in Spanish and Portuguese . . . Might be great for the CHURCH to make the papacy less Eurocentric and the Vatican disciplined by the wisdom and virtue of an outsider. Might be great for America to have a Capuchin “role model.” I’m thinking here about what Walker Percy called the Church at the end of the modern world.

I’m posting this not to tell you what to think but to get your opinion.