As much as Chicago\u2019s Roman Catholics believe the selection of the city\u2019s next archbishop will be guided by the Holy Spirit, experts and history point to other forces, such as demographics and local politics, that help shape such decisions.\u00a0<\/span> As much as Chicago\u2019s Roman Catholics believe the selection of the city\u2019s next archbishop will be guided by the Holy Spirit, experts and history point to other forces, such as demographics and local politics, that help shape such decisions.\u00a0\u201cPolitics, diversity and money play a role in this world. We know that,\u201d said Miguel Diaz, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
<\/span>\u201cPolitics, diversity and money play a role in this world. We know that,\u201d said Miguel Diaz, a former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican who served in Rome under the Obama administration. \u201cThe pope is clearly not just the head of the world\u2019s Catholics. He\u2019s also the head of a sovereign state,\u201d he said. \u201cThat should tell you \u2026 the church is really functioning in two worlds.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>
<\/span>As Cardinal Francis George battles cancer and urges the church to find his successor, Pope Francis must decide who will lead the church in the city that President Barack Obama calls home, where Catholic Charities relies on federal funding to serve hundreds of thousands of Chicagoans and where Catholic schools are lobbying for public funding to stay open.\u00a0<\/span>
<\/span>The code of canon law that governs the appointment of Catholic bishops makes clear that no civil authority has the right to designate a church leader. Some observers, however, see more nuance in the process to pick George\u2019s successor, a decision that could provide a blueprint for the entire church in the U.S.\u00a0<\/span>
<\/span>\u201cThere\u2019s an emphasis on the part of Francis that the church be a constructive player in the public debate,\u201d said Rocco Palmo, a Philadelphia writer and expert on the Catholic Church hierarchy. \u201cBecause of federal money and public grants, it poses a question to Francis: Is the church going to be a team player, especially with a pope who cares so much for the poor, or would he want the church to risk what it\u2019s able to do with public money because of its public positions or because of its aggressive stance on what\u2019s happening in the state?\u201d<\/span>
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