“Team Bergoglio”
In his book “The Great Reformer,” Francis’ biographer Austen Ivereigh described the 2013 election of Francis and how Nichols’ predecessor, Murphy-O’Connor and other reform-minded Europeans within the College of Cardinals seized the opportunity to push Bergoglio after it was clear the Italians were fighting among themselves over the Italian candidate, splitting their vote.
“Team Bergoglio,” as these reform-minded cardinals came to be known, had tried to talk up Bergoglio in the 2005 conclave, but failed to get their man through after Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s momentum grew and Bergoglio bowed out.
In 2013, with many too old to vote in the conclave itself, “Team Bergoglio” talked up the Argentine at dinner parties around Rome in the days before the conclave to try to ensure the Argentine could secure at least 25 votes on the first ballot to establish himself as a serious candidate, the book said.
“The Great Reformer” recounts a dinner party at the North American College, the US seminary in Rome, on March 5, 2013 to which Murphy-O’Connor and Australian Cardinal George Pell were invited and where the British cardinal talked up Bergoglio’s name.
“He held a number of these dinners, and I think there were a few of them involved, a few who had grown convinced that Bergoglio was what the church needed,” Ivereigh said Friday.
Nichols doesn’t have any such calculations or candidate, at least that he is willing to divulge.
“For me, it’s no good going into a conclave thinking it’s like a political election and I want my side to win. I’m not going to do that,” he said. “I’m going to go in certainly with my own thoughts but ready to change them, to listen and maybe try and persuade others to change theirs too”.
