Will the Catholic Church
ever have a black Pope?
By Jeff Israely
Sunday, Dec. 21, 2008
The question is not 'ever' or 'if' but 'when'. The Holy Spirit knows.
Left, Cardinal Arinze with the Pope last month; right, Cardinals Gantin and Ratzinger in 2004.
Before the election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, there was the papal "candidacy" of Francis Arinze.
The Nigerian Cardinal had been billed as the man who could become the first black Pope, garnering loads of media attention during the run-up to the 2005 conclave when Ratzinger eventually emerged as Benedict XVI.
Earlier this month Arinze, 76, retired from his top Vatican post, which for all intents and purposes ended any likelihood that he will ever be Pontiff.
Once a "Prince of the Church" gives up his day-to-day assignments, he is typically thought to be out of the running for the top job.
Arinze, who was once the world's youngest bishop at the age of 33, and a participant at the Second Vatican Council, rose to be a power player in the Roman Curia, serving for many years as the point man on inter-religious dialogue.
He served the past six years as the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, which will now be headed by Cardinal Antonio Canizares Llovera of Toledo, Spain.
Let it be clear that the Vatican's top job (for life) is very much occupied by Benedict, 81, who shows every sign of being in good health, and set to lead Catholics through Midnight Mass for many Christmases to come. [Thank you, Mr. Israely, for stating a fact that is also our dearest wish!]
But Arinze's retirement raises the question of if and when the Catholic Church will be ready to follow the United States in choosing a man with roots in Africa — or anywhere outside of Europe — to lead its ever more diverse flock.
Vatican insiders are reticent to name names with Benedict so firmly in command, but there are several prominent clerics likely to take Arinze's place as most papabile African, alongside other better known possibilities from Latin America and Asia who might one day become Pope.
The College of Cardinals — once dominated by Italians — has become a much more diverse group. Still, Europeans continue to have a virtual lock in overall numbers: exactly half of the current 116 Cardinal electors (those under age 80) are from Europe, with Italy still counting 20. Latin America has 20 Cardinal electors, the United States and Canada a total of 16. Asia has 11 and Africa nine. Any Cardinal (any baptized male Catholic, in theory) can emerge from a conclave as Pope.
Among the up-and-coming Cardinals from Africa, Vatican watchers cite Peter Turkson of Ghana, 60, and Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier, 67 of South Africa, as potential papal material. Archbishop John Onayiekan of Nigeria, who may soon be up for a Cardinal slot, is considered "strong here and back there," says one Rome insider, referring to Onayiekan's knowledge of the Third World and his skills navigating the ins and outs of the Holy See.
Still, the Vatican parlor game of trying to envision future papal candidates is slippery business. Perhaps the strongest African candidate of the 20th century was the widely respected Cardinal Bernardin Gantin of Benin, who died in May at the age of 86.
[And who was Cardinal Ratzinger's classmate in that mini-consistory of 5 cardinals named by Pope Paul VI in Nay 1977.]
Having once headed the powerful Congregation of Bishops, some thought Gantin could be an ideal candidate to replace John Paul, whose health was long suffering. But the durable Polish pontiff lived much longer than many predicted, and Gantin eventually retired back to Africa.
Catholicism is expanding across much of the developing world, with the highest growth rate in Africa, now a source of ever more priests sent out to work in European and North American countries facing clergy shortage.
Latin American Catholics, who had high hopes back in 2005 that one of their Cardinals would fill John Paul II's papal slippers, are battling to hold onto their faithful, who have been moving to evangelical Protestant churches in droves over the past two decades.
The current German Pope has focused much of his attention on efforts to reinvigorate traditional Catholicism in Europe, the historical headquarters of the Church. After trips to Germany, Spain and France, as well as the United States and Brazil, Benedict is slated to make his first visit to Africa in March, with stops in Cameroon and Angola.
Thanks again to Mr. Israely for his Christmas spirit in not saying one barbed word in this item about Benedict XVI.
P.S. I also stand corrected: TIME did find place for the Pope in one of its year-end lists - and therein lies the malicious-as-ever barbs despite the apparently flattering headline:
Repeat after us: pastoral visits do not make Papal policy.
Benedict XVI stunned and impressed his hosts during his pontifical visit to the United States with his relentless engagement of the trip's most delicate issue, the church's sex abuse scandal.
Starting on the plane over, he issued a string of heartfelt apologies admitting "deep shame" about the tragedy, met privately with victims and accepted a book listing 1,500 victims — and their subsequent struggles — from archbishop Sean O'Malley, who inherited the scandal's ground zero, Boston, from Cardinal Bernard Law.
Benedict's rue was far more than a gesture, but less than a promise — the Vatican has done little since to address the systemic abuses of authority that allowed the sex scandals to occur. And now, retired Cardinal Law runs a Roman basilica.
What on earth can the Vatican do more "to address the systemic abuses of authority that allowed the sex scandals to occur"? The Magisterium has set the guidelines, with dotted i's and crossed t's - it is now up to the local bishops to follow the spirit and letter of these guidelines - and the Gospel in general! And yet the same pen that wrote this barb will write elsewhere that the Vatican is too centralized and wants to hold all the reins.
REPEAT AFTER US, TIME MAGAZINE AND ALL SECULAR JOURNALISTS:
THE CHURCH IS NOT A MULTI-NATIONAL CORPORATION.
IT IS A UNIQUE INSTITUTION FOUNDED BY JESUS CHRIST, SON OF GOD.
STOP REPORTING ON IT AS IF IT WERE A RUN-OF-THE-MILL COMPANY
AND THE POPE A GARDEN-VARIETY CEO.
And by the way, about your last line which was non sequitur but maliciously added 0n (and I bet the writer felt smugly clever about doing it) since most readers would not be aware that Cardinal Law was assigned to Santa Maria Maggiore in 2002 by John Paul II - and so, Benedict XVI had nothing to do with it..
Also, this is one of Time's 48 choices for their Photos of the Year - but it did not make it to the top 10, even if it comes #10 in the list of 48. The other religious person in the 48 was the Dalai Lama photographed in an act of prostration in his private chapel in Dharamsala, India.
The Dalai Lama's picture is titled PRAYER.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 21/12/2008 17:18]