POPE BENEDICT XVI this week named Cardinal Angelo Scola as the next archbishop of Milan, replacing Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi who has passed the compulsory retirement age of 75.
Traditionally in the Catholic church, the “man in Milan” becomes a leading candidate to be the next pope.
In the last century, two Milan archbishops, Pius XI and Paul VI, went on to become popes, while the two most recent incumbents, Cardinal Tettamanzi and Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, were at different times considered to be the leading Italian candidate of the moment.
While most Vatican insiders would agree that Cardinal Scola would now feature on a shortlist of Italian candidates to be the next pontiff, many observers believe that in the context of the 21st century, an Italian candidacy is no longer tenable.
Since 2002, Cardinal Scola has been patriarch of Venice, where he created the Oasis Foundation. This was intended to promote dialogue with the Islamic world, as well as solidarity among Christians in the Middle East.
Cardinal Scola is seen as someone close to the influential right-wing Italian lay movement Communione e Liberazione.
The son of a lorry driver, he became a friend and follower of the communione's founder, Msgr Luigi Giussani, while studying in Milan in the early 1960s.
The communioneis best known in Ireland for its annual Rimini meeting which last year was attended by President Mary McAleese and Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin.