The future of the church “does not lie in Europe,” Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Mueller, a German who Benedict tapped last year to serve as the Vatican’s doctrinal watchdog, said in a separate interview in December. “I know a number of bishops and cardinals from Latin America who could take responsibility for the entire world Church.”
And then there is Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York (pictured handing out meals to the homeless on Ash Wednesday), and Marc Ouellet of Quebec and others from Africa and Asia. And who might be best for the shroud? I don’t think that will get much thought or any media coverage. But we can ponder the question.