On Questioning the Sanctity of John Paul II

From 1991 until 2005, Cardinal Camillo Ruini served Pope John Paul II as the papal Vicar for Rome - the man who handled the daily affairs of the diocese of which the pope was, of course, bishop. Ruini was a creative cardinal-vicar who energized the Diocese of Rome for the New Evangelization - a concept he grasped perhaps better than any other Italian prelate. As president of the Italian bishops' conference, he was committed to John Paul II's program of "broadening the Tiber": that is, getting the Italian church out of its customary entanglements with partisan Italian politics and into the business of Catholic moral witness and the Christian transformation of culture. Had the College of Cardinals decided to elect an Italian to the papacy in 2005, Cardinal Ruini would have made an excellent choice.