Millions scream it's time for an African or Latino as Pope
Special commentary for USAfrica The
Newspaper, Houston, CLASS
magazine
USAfricaonline.com
and The
Black Business Journal
By Dr. Earl Ofari Hutchinson
April 4, 2005: The instant Pope John Paul II knocked at death's
door, South African Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu screamed loudly
that the next pope should be an African or Latin American. There are
compelling, and troubling reasons, that Tutu made that public demand.
Recently, hundreds of worshippers gathered in the hills above Mexico
City for a day of prayer, baptism, spiritual renewal, and soul
cleansing. They 
were
not Catholic. They were evangelical Christians, and they are growing
in numbers and popularity, and challenging the age-old supremacy of
Mexican Catholicism. The situation is reversed in Nigeria, Brazil,
the Philippines, and dozens of other countries in Asia, Latin America
and Africa.
Two thirds of the world's one billion Catholics live in developing nations. There are nearly one hundred million Catholics in Africa, and an estimated 200 million black Catholics worldwide. The number of Catholics in the nonwhite world has soared in the past decade. The growing acceptance or rejection of Catholicism by millions in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and among African-Americans presents a towering dilemma for the 117 cardinals that will begin their hush hush conclave two to three weeks after the death of Pope John Paul II to elect a papal successor. That dilemma is should the next pope be non-European, and reformist?
The past couple of decades the Catholic Church has been wracked by ideological, theological and philosophical battles over abortion, gay marriage, women in the priesthood, and celibacy. It has seen a huge free-fall in the number of priests and nuns, has shelled out millions to settle priest child sex scandals, and will spend even more millions on future settlements. As grave as these problems are, they pale in relation to the titanic struggles that confront the Catholic hierarchy in trying to adapt and adjust to the profound cultural and racial shifts in the make-up of its global flock. John Paul II recognized that the single biggest challenge facing the church was how to be a church that was relevant to the potential millions of Catholics that can be gained or lost to Islam and the evangelicals, and other faiths in non-white countries. The church could not stand pat on entrenched dogma, and past practices. It would have to change those practices, its approach to nonwhite Catholics, and eventually the ethnic face of the man at the top.
The names of well-connected, and respected African and Latin American cardinals have been frequently bandied about as having the right stuff to head the church. That doesn't mean that Catholic Church leaders will take the bold step of naming one of them to the top spot. There has never been a Latin American pope, and the last African pope was 15 centuries back. But the top non-European contenders bring the unique assets that the church desperately needs to staunch its hemorrhaging.
These men can bridge the Muslim and Christian divide, make battling poverty, the inter-ethnic and religious violence, and the damaging economic side effects of rampaging globalization big priorities, and place strong emphasis on social and economic reforms in poor countries. They have written and spoken extensively on these problems, and these are the problems that can make or break the church in the next decade in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
A leading contender for the top job, Nigerian born Cardinal Francis Arinze, in a speech at Wake Forest University a few years ago, acknowledged that the church can't duck these issues, "There is no Catholic hurricane or Baptist drought. There is no Jewish inflation or Muslim unemployment. There is no Buddhist drug addiction or Hindu AIDS. These problems don't respect religious frontiers."
The political jockeying to fill the papal vestments of John Paul II will be fierce. It took two days, and eight ballots to put John Paul in the papal chair in 1978. The European cardinals hold the dominant papal cards in the balloting with 58 papal electors. Latin America has 21 papal electors, and Africa has 11. Italy has the most papal votes of any single country and for five centuries before John Paul's near thirty-year reign, the pope was Italian. If they so choose, they can bring mountainous pressure to put an Italian back in the papal top spot.
A Black or Latin American pope, though, would send the strong message to Latin America and Africa's practicing Catholics and prospective converts that the Catholic Church is committed to making them not only church members but shot callers in making the policy of the Catholic Church
The prospect of the next pope being from Africa or Latin America excites millions of non-white, non-European Catholics. There's no guarantee that that will happen, and a great likelihood that it won't, given the dominance and conservatism of the Italian and European cardinals in the papal voting. Even if it doesn't happen this go around, the problem of making the Catholic Church even more diverse, inclusive and relevant to Africans and Latin Americans will still be there no matter who assumes the top papal spot.
Dr. Hutchinson, contributing editor and columnist for
USAfricaonline.com, is a political analyst and social issues
commentator, and the author of The Crisis in Black and Black (Middle
Passage Press).
As Pope John Paul continues
his life's journey, WILL CARDINAL ARINZE
BE THE FIRST AFRICAN ELECTED POPE IN RECENT
HISTORY?
As the facilitator of
inter-religious dialogue, Arinze has seen and interacted with
differing 
religionists
who, to varying degrees, embody zealotry and reason, lucidity of
thought and rock-ribbed dogmatisms. By being a major voice for Roman
Catholicism in Africa, he has enriched the goals of the Vatican to
win more souls to that unique section of the Christian community.
In deftly respecting and
showing sensitivity to the cultural contexts for religious
evangelization and work in different regions of the world, Arinze (a
Nigerian, like me, from the south eastern Igbo ethnic group as is the
literary giant Prof. Chinua Achebe) seems a fitting bridge for a
common, shared theology of humankind. Our brother, The Cardinal, is
neither extreme in words nor brash in personal conduct, he also
stands as a role model who should be emulated by many, especially in
the community of his natural origin, the Nigerian community. Among
other qualities, he shows scholarship and a rare balance of reason
and theology. May your pastroral
lineage endure.
By Chido Nwangwu,
Founder and Publisher, USAfricaonline.com, CLASS magazine, Houston
and The Black Business Journal and recipient of Journalism Excellence
award (1999). Special to USAfricaonline.com
CLICK
on Arinze's picture or here for full report of this essay first
written online on April 7,1999, updated on April 25, 2002 and April
1, 2005
|
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source
for an engaging understanding of African pre-colonial,
colonial and post-colonial history and realities. I believe
that such insight has made him a favorite of
African-Americans, and other scholars and regular folks in
search of a better, realistic understanding of Africa, at
least, from Achebe's utilization of his rich and dynamic
Igbo ancestry, in south eastern Nigeria. I share the same
ancestry, and he's one of 
USAfricaonline.com
Founder Chido Nwangwu with the U.S. former Ambassador
Carrington (right) at the U.S. embassy in Lagos during a
courtesy visit.
Obasanjo: Let me say this to you, when you put the question
of 10,000 -- 10,000 people dying in Nigeria, of course, for
a population of over 120 million people...."
But USAfricaonline.com Founder and
recipient of the Journalism Excellence award (1997),