ROME – Despite two separate denials of mounting intensity, speculation continues to make the rounds that Pope Francis has tasked a veteran Italian cardinal and canon lawyer with preparing changes to the rules governing the next papal election, including the possibility of the participation of laypeople, either beforehand or even in the balloting itself.
On Friday, veteran Italian journalist Massimo Franco published an essay in the country’s paper of record, Corriere della Sera, under the provocative headline, “The ghost document that ‘changes’ the conclave: denials and tensions. The hypothesis of an attack against Pope Francis.”
