Bp. Callahan: Don't expect an American

Bishop William Callahan doesn’t expect the next pope to be an American, although former La Crosse Bishop Raymond Burke is making some oddsmakers’ lists to succeed Pope Benedict XVI.

“The church would be very guarded in choosing an American,” Callahan said Monday during an interview in response to the 85-year-old pope’s surprise resignation announcement just hours earlier.

“A number of American cardinals easily could stand on the world stage,” including now-Cardinal Burke and Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, said Callahan, who has been bishop of the 19-county La Crosse Diocese since 2010.

However, Callahan said, “an American might be viewed as a lightning rod politically rather than spiritually.”

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