MILWAUKEE--Marquette Professor Bill Thorn says advanced copies of Wednesday's morning La Repubblica newspaper say former Milwaukee Archbishop, now Timothy Cardinal Dolan of New York, is the shadow candidate for pope.

"The newspaper historically has some of the best sources in the Vatican," Dr. Thorn told CBS 58 News late Tuesday night.

The report suggests that at first votes from the anti-Curia voters will go to the Italian Cardinal Scola, but he won't get 2/3's  because of the opposition of the curial cardinals. So,  in the second consideration Dolan will emerge as Karol Wojtyla did to become John Paul the Second.
 

In unprecedented polling of the papal election Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, former Archbishop of Milwaukee is second to Italian Angelo Scola among well connected news agencies that cover the Vatican.

In a more wide ranging poll, another American, Cardinal O'Malley of Boston tops the list of choices to be the next leader of the Catholic Church.

Dr. Bill Thorn of Marquette University, and a communications consultant to the Vatican since 1982, says its remarkable that Americans would still be gaining such unprecedented consideration.

Dr. Thorn believes after the first vote on Tuesday with no Pope elected things will move very quickly.

"They're separating the wheat from the chaff if I can call cardinals chaff," Dr. Thorn told CBS 58's Michele McCormack, "but this is the serious candidates from the others."
 

Dr. Thorn says it's not that the cardinals are confused about the men who could be Pope, rather, they're not decided upon what the next Pope should be like.

He thinks once 77 reach a consensus on the characteristics of the Pope, then we could see the white smoke by Wednesday or  Thursday.

Although Easter is a few weeks off, he believes many will want to be home by next week to prepare for this holy holiday.