A leading contender to succeed Pope John Paul has called for Roman Catholicism to scale back the power of its centralized papacy and focus less on the pontiff who heads the world's largest Church.
Belgian Cardinal Godfried Danneels said the charismatic Polish pope had become "an enormous figure" in the Church and a worldwide media personality while bishops around the world were drowning in red tape from the Vatican bureaucracy.
Danneels, 70, who is archbishop of Brussels and well known for his outspoken views, made clear his comments were aimed at a trend toward Vatican centralism in recent decades rather than at the now ailing 83-year-old pope who has overseen it.
Church moderates like Danneels, a minority based mostly in Western Europe and North America, argue that John Paul's Vatican has taken too much power from bishops, making them agents of his conservative policies with little say in shaping Church policy.
"Maybe we need a moment of calm in the Church, to breathe a little bit," he told the latest edition of the Italian Catholic monthly 30 Giorni in an interview about the Church's future.
He said the Vatican had centralized control over recent centuries by copying the example of European monarchies, but the third millennium called for a different style: "A certain lowering of the tone, in a good way, could be desirable."
Although so weak he can hardly walk or speak, John Paul has vowed to reign until he dies. Danneels is among a handful of cardinals, mostly from Latin America, seen as front-runners to succeed him at the head of the billion-strong Church.
Danneels said it was only natural that John Paul, who celebrated his 25th anniversary as pope in October, had become the world media's personification of the Church.
"He is a real charismatic personality who attracts attention," he said. "And the mechanism the media use, especially television, is the zoom lens -- they take a detail or a personality out of context and focus attention on it."
But he added: "The total identification between the role and the personality who carries it out is not a good thing."
He suggested that retirement for an aging and ailing pope -- an option John Paul has rejected -- could help break the link between the papacy itself and the man temporarily occupying it.
Danneels also suggested the Church could reform by making bishops' synods, the occasional consultation meetings local Church leaders hold with the pope, into more open discussions. Critics say these meetings are mostly formalities.
The Curia -- the bureaucracy which has expanded considerably since the Second Vatican Council of 1962-1965 -- should cut back its "endless stream of paper," he said: "We are inundated every day with extremely long documents, instructions and manuals."
Danneels made clear he did not want to weaken the papacy. "This is not about diminishing the influence of the pope or of the other bishops, to the detriment of one or the other."