Little risk of U.S. pope "taking orders" from White House - Obama

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said concerns that an American pope would be too closely tied to the U.S. government are misplaced, pointing out in an interview that the White House and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops are divided on some main issues.

There are two American cardinals among the dozen most frequently mentioned frontrunners in the conclave to elect the next Roman Catholic pope - Sean O'Malley of Boston and Timothy Dolan of New York - but conclaves have long been wary of picking a "superpower pope" from the United States.