and could potentially be a great gift for leadership, servant leadership, for all of us within the church and society. jim nicholson, he has a pretty blameless record in terms of any of the sex abuse scandals that have rocked the catholic church. i guess the one thing on his resume which would raise eyebrows, and is raising eyebrows, is what his involvement may or may not have been in argentina s dirty war of mainly the 70s. he was the number-one jesuit through some of that period. and the allegations against him, which have never been completely proven, but they re out there, are that somehow he was complicit with the dictatorship s appalling atrocity, not doing enough to expose it, and on some occasion even being partly responsible for the death of some priests and so on. is there any substance to this that should be taken seriously? is this a smear campaign?
is the saint who opted for the little ones in god s kingdom. and also, let us remember that francis of assisi was also the bridge-builder across religious traditions. you know, francis meets the sultan, at a time when we need more than ever a kind of engagement with other faiths and people of goodwill from all over the world. this man represents a change. and could potentially be a great gift for leadership, servant leadership, for all of us within the church and society. jim nicholson, he has a pretty blameless record in terms of any of the sex abuse scandals that have rocked the catholic church. i guess the one thing on his resume which would raise eyebrows, and is raising eyebrows, is what his involvement may or may not have been in argentina s dirty war of mainly the 70s. he was the number-one jesuit through some of that period.
administrator. i think you ll find that a lot of these cardinals who are going in realize full well that they have been in conclave, electing a leader at a time of quite unprecedented turmoil. we mentioned over and again over the last several weeks the abuses, whether it be the financial scandals, the allegations of corruption, whether it be the sex abuse scandals, and therefore a good administrator, a good evangelizer, somebody charismatic, who can get the message across and clean up the place a little bit. chris? all right, we ll come back to you in a little bit. reaction from all over the world. we heard when white smoke was seen, president obama in the united states was in a conference with republican leaders. and he immediately stopped the session and made a joke about how we have white smoke, so obviously significant no matter where you are, no matter who you are. to anderson cooper, he s with the people who are expectantly waiting in st. peter s square. anderson? that s righ
there who were watching. if they come out of this conclave with more of the same, someone who is not a, wow, he ll get it done, given the sex abuse scandals, given the urgency of the idea that management is just poor there, do you think they understand that they have to make a big move with this decision? look, i think the 115 cardinals who went into the sistine chapel yesterday are profoundly aware that the hope of the world have been raised that this is going to be a dramatic moment of change and they re anxious to deliver. the hard part, as you and i and anderson have been talking about is they also want a nuts and bolts manager. an inspirational visionary and nuts and bolts manager don t often come in the same package. that s what makes this job search, so to speak, the most unique job search so difficult. john, zaida, in new york. all right, thank you, chris. as the catholic faithful wait for news of a new pope, the church s dark side has been rearing its head. los angeles
post poll, an overwhelming number of american catholics disapprove of the church s handling of the sex abuse scandals. in addition to criticism shared worldwide of the secretive and allegedly corrupt vatican banking system. what is it the church needs? where does the church need to go? reporter: one thing is certain, the race is wide open with all eyes on that chimney. josh elliott, abc news, vatican city. now, as we said, the conclave is carried out in total secrecy. and the 90 or so support staff in fact took a solemn oath yesterday to uphold that tradition. even the head of the swiss guards and the vatican police were sworn not to reveal what goes on inside that chapel. here is what we do know about how the ancient process works. the voting may begin right away. up to four times a day until two-thirds of the cardinals agree on a name. they write their choices on paper ballots which are eventually burned. black smoke from the burned ballot papers means no pope. white smoke mea