The case for a Latin pope

The Christian Science Monitor has a story on speculations in Latin America leading up to the decision on the next pope. There is widespread hope for a Latin American pope, and after all "As many as 450 million of the world's 1.1 billion Catholics live in Latin America".

The implications are profound:

"While the top issues in the US and European Catholic communities are things like homosexuality, abortion, euthanasia, and the sex-abuse scandal, Latin Catholics are focused on poverty, corruption, gangs, and drugs - not to mention the competition for believers with successful evangelical churches. In Africa, disease, war, famine, and the spread of Islam can be added to that list of concerns."

Could Western political stoushes and political correctness take a back seat to the more basic concerns about survival of the Two Thirds world, or what some now call the Majority World? The college of cardinals begins their deliberations tomorrow.

The example of John Paul II

John Paul II was himself a susprising choice for a pope. Certainly he was in many ways conservative, and even opposed the liberation theology popular in Latin America for its Marxist roots - something a man who lived under communist rule in Poland was extremely wary about. On the other hand, as a man who came from an oppressed nation he also understood Latin America better than many. Latin Americans say of him "John Paul II taught us we were equals" and the praise doesn't stop there

"overall, he was adored here. The late pope spoke Spanish and visited the region 18 times. During his visits, he playfully donned sombreros or indigenous headdresses as he embraced his followers in almost every country in the region. He held a landmark mass in Cuba in 1998; scolded Gen. Augusto Pinochet's dictatorial military government in Chile in 1987; and on one of his five visits to Mexico, in 2002, he bestowed sainthood on Juan Diego, an indigenous 16th century Mexican who, after converting to Catholicism, became famous for reportedly seeing a vision of the Virgin Mary. He was the Americas' first indigenous saint."

Like his outspoken opposition to the war in Iraq, there were many things this pope did right.

The numbers

When it comes to sober judgement of the likelihood of Latin America's hopes being realised the numbers don't look good. It's a collective decision of the cardinal's of the church and while Latin America holds 21, to Africa and Asia's 11 each, Europe is still way ahead with 58, with 16 coming from the remainder of the world including the US. Even if the Two Thirds world banded together, that's still 43 to 58 with the remaining 16 likely to fall culturally closer to Europe.

The Two Thirds world certainly has the majority among the laity, something rarely admitted by either friends or critics of the church in the West, but it is a question of how willing the lop-sidedly European council of cardinals are to recognize that fact and trust a Latin American to competently lead the church.

What it would mean

If Latin American hopes are realised there is one man they tend to favour:

"Honduras's Cardinal Oscar Andrés Rodriguez Maradiaga, a charismatic left-leaning intellectual who speaks eight languages; flies light aircraft; and holds degrees in philosophy, theology, clinical psychology, and psychotherapy. Cardinal Rodriguez Maradiaga has presided over the Latin American bishops' conference, and once campaigned for Third World debt relief alongside U2's Bono."

Indeed, Maradiaga is almost moderate in a continent whose leadership runs the spectrum from those who out of theological convictions take up weapons to fight alongside the poor to those, like Oscar Romero, who speak truth to power and are assassinated for it. It would certainly make for a very interesting administration.

Related Link