Chief architect of Pope John Paul II's traditionalist moral policy, Cardinal Ratzinger, has emerged as the top papal candidate within the Vatican hierarchy, a media report has said.
The others in the fray include Doinigi Tettamanzi of Milan and Caludio Humees of Sao Paolo, Time magazine said.
It said there are no immediate signs of John Paul's health taking a turn for the worse and he has publicly ruled out becoming the first pope in eight centuries to retire voluntarily.
But as his long papacy grows ever longer, the magazine report said some feel the next conclave will seek a shorter-term 'transitional' figure. Ratzinger, 77, may fill that bill.
His doctrinaire ways have been tempered of late by a deft and more pragmatic approach to issues such as rising Western secularism and Islamic fundamentalism.
During the recent US controversy about giving communion to pro-choice candidates, Ratzinger authored a careful letter to American bishops reasserting the Vatican's antiabortion stance without dragging the Holy See into election-year theatrics.
Moreover, John Paul's very public health woes may prompt the cardinals to push his successor to impose a mechanism to avoid another pontificate slowed by illness.
Ratzinger, who has sought ways to adapt church governance for modern times, might be willing to agree to an age limit and pass on the job after a few years, the magazine said.
