Scoping Out A Third World Pope

As cardinals rushed to the Vatican on Sunday to begin the process of selecting a new pope, many back home were asking a pointed question: With a majority of the world's Roman Catholics living in the developing world, shouldn't the next pope come from one of those countries?

The possibility that the next pope could come from Latin America, Africa or Asia is creating a buzz from Mexico City to Manila, from Tegucigalpa to Kinshasa. Many Latin American Catholics said the only way to improve on a papacy they overwhelmingly support would be to select someone from their own ranks.

Their hopes are fueled by the last papal conclave, in which a Polish archbishop became the first non-Italian pope in 455 years, as well as by the global outreach that John Paul II made a cornerstone of his papacy. They also have been boosted by sheer numbers: Half the world's 1 billion Roman Catholics live in Latin America alone, and the church is seeing explosive growth in Africa and Asia.

Even outside Roman Catholicism, leaders from the developing world saw a chance for change.

"We hope that perhaps the cardinals when they meet will follow the first non-Italian pope by electing the first African pope," Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu said Sunday from Cape Town, South Africa.

Many Catholics in poor countries said a pope from their own regions would better understand the challenges they face, and would make the church more relevant in the lives of its increasingly diverse followers.

Pope John Paul II promoted African bishops to the ranks of cardinals and gave them prominent roles at the Vatican, recognizing the importance of a continent where crops may fail but the Church's harvest of souls and vocations has not ceased to multiply.

Many say an African pope now could anchor the Catholic Church among the world's poor — signaling its aim to lead the fight against inequality and disease and offering a hope of salvation in this world as well as the next.

But even as Africans mourn the loss of a champion in John Paul II, streets and churches are filled with speculation surrounding the possibility that the first non-Italian pope in several centuries could be replaced by the first black pontiff of modern times.

The name that keeps cropping up as a candidate is that of Cardinal Francis Arinze on Nigeria — a priest remembered for turning mission schools into shelters for starving refugees.

While John Paul did not increase the overall number of African cardinals from his immediate predecessors — there are 11 now compared 12 before John Paul was crowned — he has greatly boosted their profile by calling several to the Vatican. Arinze, for example, was entrusted with mediating interfaith relations — one of John Paul's favorite projects.

"John Paul strengthened Africa's role in the church," said Mario Aguilar, dean of divinity at the University of St. Andrews "John Paul gave the tools to the African churches to become more central to the church."

Aguilar said that by giving Africans a greater Vatican role, John Paul "did increase the chances of seeing an African pope."

Yet many in Africa have doubts about whether church elders are ready to elect an African pope.

"I doubt that the white man will allow a black man to become pope," said Chinyere Osigwe, a 40-year-old Nigerian — one of the 135.6 million African Catholics who make up nearly 17 percent of Church's congregation worldwide.

Working to Arinze's advantage is the fact that he has deep personal affinities with John Paul — who named most of the cardinals who will elect the next pope.

Arinze has more than a streak of social activism, and shares John Paul's conservative views on abortion, contraception and homosexuality — which tend to play well in Africa

Nigerians still remember Arinze's work during the Biafra civil war in the late 1960s and early '70s, when missionary schools in the young archbishop's domain were transformed overnight into camps filled with starving refugees.

John Paul II, who made 13 tours to the continent, indicated the importance it held for him by calling last year for a second synod of African bishops, years before one was due.

When the pope made his first visit to Africa in 1980, many countries still suffered under Marxist regimes that persecuted Catholics or military and civilian dictatorships, Zimbabwe had just become independent but South Africa and Namibia remained under white rule.

John Paul visited countries like Guinea-Bissau, where more than 90 percent of the population is Catholic, but he also reached out to Muslim Africa, visiting nations — such as Burkina Faso and Senegal — where less than 5 percent of the population is Catholic.

While several names from developing countries have been mentioned as candidates, it is unclear what kind of chance Third World religious leaders stand. Only 21 of the cardinals eligible to vote on the new pontiff are from Latin America and the Caribbean, and only 11 from Africa, compared with 58 from Europe alone.

But the inroads being made by evangelical Protestants in Latin America, combined with the fact that the church is growing fastest in the Third World, accounts for at least three Central or South American cardinals featuring prominently on several lists, reports CBS News Correspondent Allen Pizzey.

The Dominican Republic's Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus Lopez Rodriguez, who will participate in the conclave, said the next pope should be oriented toward Latin America, but he stopped short of saying the pontiff should be a native of the region.

"The majority of Catholics in the world are in Latin America, so whoever is elected should focus on this continent," Lopez Rodriguez told reporters after celebrating a Mass at Santo Domingo Cathedral.
Hundreds of Dominicans cheered and wished the 68-year-old cardinal well after the Mass, with many chanting "we hope they pick you."

Vatican observers disagree over the amount of pressure there will be to return the papacy to an Italian — Italy still has 20 voting-age cardinals, by far the largest group — or whether the conclave could expand the message of universality by selecting a candidate from a developing country.

Church leaders insist the cardinals' decision will not be based on a geographical calculation. The candidates, they say, will be judged by their faith and their ability to lead.

"It won't matter where he comes from, from which continent," Sao Paulo, Brazil Archbishop Claudio Hummes, who is often mentioned as a candidate, said Friday after Mass.

"It will matter that the cardinals will be in front of God, under oath, and they will have to choose the one they think is the man for this moment in the history of the church and the world."

But across the globe, many of the faithful suggested that kind of talk was merely diplomacy.

"We hope that his successor will be a black person from the African continent," said Patrique Ngoma, a 20-year-old student attending Mass in Kinshasa, Congo.

"It would be better to have a Latin American pope, someone on our side," said Anjelica Navarro, 30, as she cooked up blue-corn tortillas stuffed with fragrant meat and onions at a stand in downtown Mexico City.

Andres Nunez, 67, who co-owns a nearby hardware store, was more blunt: "It's about time we got something!"

But beyond the national rivalries, many said a Latin American pope would help the church counter Protestant evangelism, and a Third World pope with roots among the poor would be better able to respond to the most pressing needs of his flock.

"As an African, he would be able to better engage himself in the battle against poverty, which he himself would know and have conquered," Ngoma said.

Jorge Rouillon, who writes on religious issues for the Argentine daily La Nacion, said choosing a Third World candidate for the papacy would make the church appear more in tune with the modern world.

"He could be the image of a universal church that we have seen more of in recent years," he said.

Some Catholics in developing countries, despite their faith in the church, were pessimistic about the chances of seeing a non-European pope. They accused the church of racism.

"I doubt that the white man will allow a black man to become pope," said Chinyere Osigwe, 40, at Our Lady of Fatima Church in Lagos.

Others, while wishing for a pope from their own ranks, simply lowered their expectations. Andrea Villaruel, 36, begged for pocket change for her 11 children on the steps of the San Isidro Cathedral in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and praised the last pope for speaking so many languages.

"John Paul II has been one of the greatest," she said. "Well, I hope the next one also speaks Spanish."