My Son's No Pope, Austrian Candidate's Mum Says

W460

Many parents would be delighted to have their son become pope -- not so Eleonore Schoenborn, mother of Austrian candidate Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn.

"Being pope would be too much for Christoph, it would be much too difficult for him," the 92-year-old told Austrian daily Kronen-Zeitung in an interview. "He is too good for the job."

She said that even now, she only manages to travel to the capital Vienna from her home in Schruns in western Austria to see her 68-year-old son once a year.

"If he really does go to Rome, I will never see him again. I'm too old for a journey like that. It would be goodbye forever," she said.

Schoenborn is seen as an outside candidate to become pope since he would be the second German-speaking pontiff in a row after the German Benedict XVI, the younger man's mentor.

Benedict, 85, abruptly resigned last month, saying he had become too weak in body and mind to keep up with a fast-changing modern world.

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