Angelo Scola

Religious Figure

Catholic cardinal Angelo Scola was considered a leading contender to succeed Pope John Paul II in 2005. Scola was born in Italy during World War II and became a priest at age 28. He was appointed bishop of Grosetto, Italy, in 1971. Scola spent much of his career as both a priest and an academic; he earned PhDs in both philosophy and theology, and in 1995 was named rector of the Lateran Pontifical University at the Vatican. He became patriarch of Venice in 2002 and was elevated to cardinal in 2003. Scola also has headed the Pontifical Institute on Marriage and the Family, in which post he worked closely with the pope on issues of marriage and birth control. As the health of John Paul II failed in 2005, Scola was one of several cardinals mentioned as potential successors; on 19 April 2005, Germany's Joseph Ratzinger was elected, becoming Pope Benedict XVI.

Extra credit: Pope John Paul I also was patriarch of Venice... In 2004 Scola founded Oasis, a scholarly journal with features on Catholic-Islamic relations. Other contenders for the papacy in 2005 included Nigeria's Francis Arinze and Italy's Dionigi Tettamanzi.