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Tag: Pope

  • Task before Pope Francis

    Task before Pope Francis

    In the morning yesterday, black smoke billowed from a makeshift copper chimney atop the Sistine Chapel , signaling that the 115 cardinals of the Catholic Church eligible to vote for a new pope had again failed to muster majority support for a successor to Benedict XVI and that balloting would continue until they do.

    By 7.30 pm yesterday, another round of balloting had produced the new pope.

    The white smoke told the world’s one billion-plus Catholics that they have a new leader to take on the myriad challenges confronting their church. The bells of St. Peter’s Basilica pealed over the huge piazza of the same name to announce the election of Benedict’s successor.

    But, it was not until about an hour later that the new pope emerged from the corridor of the conclave’s venue. He is an Argentine, Jorge Bergoglio, who as chosen to be addresed as Francis, teh first time a Pope would be bearing the name.

    Benedict resigned last month, citing failing powers and infirmity, the first pope to do so in six centuries.

    A first vote ended inconclusively on Tuesday, and the inky black smoke yesterday morning indicated continuing divisions in two subsequent ballots on Wednesday among the cardinals over what kind of pope they want to confront the pressing, sometimes conflicting, demands for change after years of scandal.

    “It’s more or less what we expected,” the Rev. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said of the first three ballots. In relatively recent times, he said only Pope Pius XII, whose papacy spanned World War II and lasted from 1939 to 1958, had been chosen on the third ballot.

    The crowd soon thickened, with many people staring toward the chimney with its simple cover or looking at it on huge television screens. Some closed their eyes and clasped their hands around rosaries in prayer.

    As the prelates weighed their options late Tuesday, news reports from California said the archdiocese, the Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, the former archbishop of Los Angeles himself and an ex-priest had reach a settlement of almost $10 million in four child sexual abuse cases, according to the victims’ lawyers.

    The agreement offered eloquent testimony to the sexual, financial mismanagement and other crises facing the new pope.

    Cardinal Mahony, who retired less than two years ago as the leader of the largest Roman Catholic archdiocese in the United States, was removed from all public duties by his successor, Archbishop José H. Gomez, last month as the church complied with a court order to release thousands of pages of internal documents that show how the cardinal shielded priests who sexually abused children.

    His presence contrasted with the fate of Britain’s most senior Roman Catholic cleric, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, who announced his resignation last month after being accused of “inappropriate acts” with priests and said he would not attend the conclave. The timing of his announcement — a day after news reports of alleged abuse appeared in Britain — suggested that the Vatican had encouraged the cardinal to stay away.

    When asked about criticism of some cardinals by advocates for the victims of clerical sex abuse, Father Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said the group SNAP — Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests — was taking advantage of the attention focused on the conclave to reap publicity.

    Prelates including Cardinal Mahony “have given their answers, have given their explanations,” he said. “These cardinals are people we should esteem” and they have the “right to enter the conclave,” he said.

    The new pope will take up a burden that Benedict declared in February was beyond his physical capabilities.

    Apart from an extensive global child abuse scandal and the “Vatileaks” case, the Church has been shaken by rivalry from other churches, the advance of secularism, especially in its European heartland, and problems in the running of the Vatican bank.

    The new pope inherits a church wrestling with an array of challenges that intensified during his predecessor, Benedict XVI – from a priest shortage and growing competition from evangelical churches in the Southern Hemisphere where most of the world’s Catholics live, to a sexual abuse crisis that has undermined the church’s moral authority in the West, to difficulties governing the Vatican itself.

    The new pope will also inherit power struggles over the management of the Vatican bank, which must continue a process of meeting international transparency standards or risk being shut out of the mainstream international banking system. In one of his final acts as pope, Benedict appointed a German aristocrat, Ernst von Freyberg, as the bank’s new president.

    He will have to help make the Vatican bureaucracy – often seen as a hornet’s nest of infighting Italians – work more efficiently for the good of the church. After years in which Benedict and John Paul helped consolidate more power at the top, many liberal Catholics also hope that the next pope will also give local bishops’ conferences more decision-making power to help respond to the needs of the faithful.

    The reform of the Roman Curia, which runs the Vatican, “is not conceptually hard, it’s hard on a political front but it will take five minutes for someone who has the strength. You get rid of the spoil system and that’s it,” said Alberto Melloni, the author of numerous books on the Vatican and the Second Vatican Council. The hard things are “if you want a permanent consultation of bishops’ conferences,” he added.

    For Mr. Melloni, foreign policy and the church’s vision of Asia would be crucial to the next pope. “If Roman Catholicism was capable of learning Greek while it was speaking Aramaic, of learning Celtic while it was speaking Latin, now it either has to learn Chinese or ‘ciao,’” he said, using the Italian world for “goodbye.”

    Ahead of the election of a new pope, cardinals said they were looking for “a pope that understands the problems of the Church at present” and who is strong enough to tackle them, said Cardinal Miloslav Vlk, the archbishop emeritus of Prague who participated in the general congregations but was not eligible to vote in a conclave. He said those problems included reforming the Roman Curia, handling the pedophilia crisis and cleaning up the Vatican bank.

    “He needs to be capable of solving these issues,” Cardinal Vlk said as he walked near the Vatican this week.

  • A pope for the Church or a pope for the world?

    A pope for the Church or a pope for the world?

    John Cornwell, a fellow of Jesus College at the University of Cambridge, is best known for his books on the papacy, most notably Hitler’s Pope. His most recent book is Newman’s Unquiet Grave. In this piece for Globe and Mail, he explores the race for the papacy, which began yesterday.

    What on earth is a pope for? And why should it matter to the world who he is or what his talents are, so long as he is a good man and preaches the gospel?

    On Tuesday, the cardinals entered the papal conclave to discuss the problems of the Roman Catholic Church in the world and the kind of man best suited to tackle them.

    Their debates will be shaped by the times. On the brink of the Second World War, they chose a diplomat pope, hoping in vain that he would bring a negotiated peace before conflict began. After Paul VI, an anxious reformer who had struggled with the sexual and other social upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s, they wanted a cheerful, uncomplicated, pastoral pope who would stress the need for prayer.

    Unfortunately, John Paul I, the “smiling Pope,” lasted barely five weeks – the cardinals realized too late that they had chosen a man in fragile health. They next chose the young, physically robust cardinal who would become the papal superstar John Paul II.

    Sometimes, during a long papacy, the problems alter drastically. In the 1980s and 1990s, John Paul II had a hand in bringing down communism and ending the Cold War, which benefited East and West, Catholics and non-Catholics. He said, “The tree was already rotten. I just gave it a good shake.” After the fall of communism, however, John Paul was fearful of the dark side of unrestrained capitalism and the growth of secularism and materialism, especially in his native Poland.

    He was an example of the strong moral voice a pope can bring to global affairs, speaking truth to power even when governments choose to ignore his teachings. In 1991, I followed John Paul on a trip to Sicily, where he fearlessly denounced the corruption of the Mafia on their own territory. He was popular throughout the world, even among many not bound by Catholic beliefs.

    Catholicism is nothing if not social, committed to the principles of the Sermon on the Mount, antagonistic to the status quo. Catholicism is radical, communitarian, open to all cultures and ethnicities – hence “catholic,” universal.

    Yet, the great difficulty of every pope is that he is the final protector of traditional belief. The Catholic Church is evidently a conservative institution. It does not pander to the latest fads and fashions; it is vigilant over its traditions of belief and practice. It does not fall into the trap of believing that, unaided by grace, human nature is perfectible.

    How can a pope – who, in combination with his bishops, is regarded as infallible in faith and morals – change course once he has proclaimed the dogma? And yet how can he not engage with the real world, the changes in society and politics, as well as scientific knowledge?

    Hans Küng, the Swiss dissident Catholic theologian and former friend of Benedict XVI, has written of the papacy: “A change, indeed a radical revolution, has to come, given the present accumulation of problems.”

    Threats to the Church

    A pope must try to protect the Church against threats of every kind, at the highest level.

    There are many external threats to the Church today. In China, the regime has created a government-sponsored hierarchy of bishops in competition with those appointed by the Vatican. In parts of Africa, Catholic churches and their congregations are being targeted in Christian-Muslim conflicts. In the United States and Britain, many parts of the Church find themselves at odds with the papacy over equal-rights policies.

    Yet, more than in any era since the Protestant Reformation, the pope who resigned last month has been deeply engrossed with internal rather than external threats to the Church.

    High on the agenda is the clerical sexual-abuse scandal, still rocking the Church. The cardinals must choose someone who has had no executive or pastoral responsibilities for pedophile priests. But there is a danger that the clerical-abuse problem is obscuring deep internal structural problems that need urgent attention.

    There are two major questions, on which a host of other issues depend: first, the scope and limits of the power of the pope and the Curia (the Vatican bureaucracy); and next, what does it mean to be an authentic Catholic today?

    At the Second Vatican Council 50 years ago, it was decided that the pope should be less of a chief executive and more a judge of final appeal. Local bishops should have greater authority and discretion. It was called the principle of collegiality, or collective authority.

    The first test of collegiality after Vatican II involved the Church’s teaching on contraception, not long after the pill became available. The bishops wanted a relaxation of the rules. But Paul VI decided on his own conscience and sense of infallibility to confirm the ban on condoms and the pill.

    For three decades, John Paul II and Joseph Ratzinger – first as cardinal enforcer, then as pope – have stuck rigidly to the papal doctrine on birth control. At the same time, they have consistently clawed back powers from the bishops to the papal centre, weakening the autonomy of the local churches.

    John Paul and Benedict, moreover, strenuously enforced a prerogative appropriated by the popes as recently in the Church’s long history as 1917: It insists that only the pope can nominate new bishops. Local hierarchies, clergy and laypeople have no say in the matter. This has ensured the appointment of generations of papal yes-men, who tend to be weak and often disappoint the faithful. (Under John Paul and Benedict, no priest could hope to be elected who had questioned papal teaching on sexual issues.) It has also meant long delays in replacing bishops.

    The centralization of papal and Vatican power and downgrading of bishops was a major reason for the failure to grapple with the pedophile-priest scandal. Decisions on defrocking were referred back to Rome. Both John Paul and Benedict believed that the scandal was cooked up by journalists and lawyers. When they could disregard it no longer, both cited Satan as the principal culprit. Abusing priests were allowed to reoffend and escape justice for years.

    Second, there is the problem of true Catholic identity. According to the past two popes, it means strict adherence to Catholic doctrine, which forbids sex before marriage, using condoms or the pill, divorcing and remarrying without an annulment, living in a gay sexual relationship etc. – all of which, unrepented, condemn a person to hell.

    Figures vary across the world, but, by papal standards, there are a great many Catholics “living in sin.” And people are not going to confession as they once did: In the U.S., statistics show that only 2 per cent of the faithful go to confession nowadays. Yet, contrary to doctrine, most still receive the Eucharist at Mass. This means that there has been a deep and growing split between papal teaching and popular practice for decades.

    John Paul appeared to ignore the dysfunction. Benedict, by contrast, knew what should be done: In interviews and writings, he declared that Catholics who were not prepared to follow the rules should leave the Church. As recently as last summer, he preached a sermon stating that those who dissented from Church teaching yet stayed within the Church were acting like Judas – the gravest sin that could be imagined.

    He was not referring just to sex, but to priests and nuns who called for a married priesthood, or for a female priesthood. Likening the truly faithful Church to the Christians in the catacombs, “a faithful remnant,” or the hot centre of a dying star, with the flotsam and jetsam of dissent in orbit around it, he expounded his preference for a smaller, totally loyal Church.

    Papal teaching on “life” and sexual matters has had a profound effect not only on Catholics but on non-Catholic perceptions of the Church. The failure of the Roman centre to deal with the sexual-abuse scandals has eroded the Church’s moral authority throughout the world. At the same time, the Church often appears out of touch on medical and scientific questions such as in vitro fertilization, HIV/AIDS prevention and embryonic stem-cell research.

    I once interviewed an extraordinary cardinal archbishop in Milan, the late Maria Martini, who was one of the favourites at the last conclave. Rev. Martini said that, on the question of contraception, for example, the right use of language and theology should make it possible to maintain the Church’s teaching against the “contraceptive mentality,” while being more lenient on a couple’s specific situation.

    He reminded me that, for 400 years, usury (lending at interest) had been considered a mortal sin, but the Church had been able to change its doctrine gradually without losing the spirit of the original principle – condemning wrongful exploitation.

    Papal isolation

    There is no doubt that popes in the past have believed and acted as if the unity of the entire Church depends on them alone in a very real sense. Loyalty to the Holy Father is the one issue that unites Catholics, whatever they may think of him. To criticize him is to offend the most crucial taboo; love him or loathe him, every Catholic knows that he remains their best and only option for future unity.

    Overwhelmed by the solitude of this papal role, Paul VI confided a private note to himself that might have been written by any of the popes in recent history: “My solitariness becomes complete and awesome. Hence the dizziness, the vertigo. Like a statue on a plinth – that is how I live now.” He went on to comment that he has to “decide, assume every responsibility for guiding others, even when it seems illogical and perhaps absurd.”

    There are great dangers in this isolation, which the great 19th-century theologian Cardinal John Henry Newman recognized. He wrote of elderly popes who have been too long in office: “It is anomaly and bears no good fruit; he becomes a god, has no one to contradict him, does not know facts, and does cruel things without meaning it.”

    Pius IX became so hated among the people of Rome that, in 1881, a gang tried to throw his body into the River Tiber as it was being drawn to its resting place.

    Many popes become addicted to their power. Pius XII, the wartime pope, was so keen to protract his reign that he took rejuvenation injections provided by a doctor in Switzerland, Paul Niehans, who was similarly treating Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia.

    This is what makes the resignation of Benedict so unusual. It is an enormous departure from the past. It means that the next pope will have an emeritus pope in the background who is aware of the isolated and isolating problems of the papacy. There may come a day when popes will have a limited period in office, and there could be several retired popes, just as there are several retired presidents of the United States. They may no longer wield power, but they can offer advice and sympathy.

    Much depends on the next pope, not just for the Church but for the wider world. If the Catholic Church falters and fragments, a crucial alternative moral voice in the world is lost.

    Herculean task

    Uppermost in the cardinals’ minds this week will be the crisis in the Church over centralization of power versus distribution of power. A conservative pope is unlikely to embark on a reform of papal and Vatican power, which has weakened the Church at its periphery. Yet, a liberal pope could find himself residing over fragmentation and disunity.

    Worse, an ultra-conservative pope would probably move to exclude those many millions of Catholics who refuse to abide by the Church’s teachings. And a recklessly progressive pope could prompt the voluntary self-exclusion of many groups of traditionalists, which happened with the so-called Society of Pius X, the splinter Catholic group that found fault with the reforms of Vatican II.

    So the Church is on the horns of a dilemma.

    One North American bishop, John Quinn, a former president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, has usefully drawn a parallel between the need for decentralization in the Church and the precedent of internal organizations such as the International Red Cross: Central control becomes counterproductive and propels the institution toward entropy and disintegration, as opposed to empowering every level to take responsibility for what they can contribute to a common direction.

    The new pope has a herculean task before him. He must try to redeem the Church from the huge damage to its reputation because of clerical sexual abuse, while addressing, as far as possible, the harm done to their victims. He must try to heal the divisions between liberal and conservative Catholics, which have reached a peak of vitriol in recent years. And he must try to devolve a measure of authority to the bishops of the world, while ensuring reasonable central control over limited essentials.

    As the cardinals pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit, I guess they will be praying with more than special fervour this time.

     

     

  • No pope at first ballot

    No pope at first ballot

    Cardinals yesterday at the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City had the first ballot of the conclave to select a new pope– but the ballot did not produce a pope.

    The so-called Princes of the Church assembled in the ornate chapel to decide on a new pontiff.

    There first ballot , which led to the emission of black smoke indicating there was no decision yet on the next pope, was around 7pm (GMT).

    The day began with a Latin Mass in St Peter’s for the cardinals and public and which is traditionally held before the conclave starts and is known as “pro eligendo Romano Pontifice”.

    It follows ex-pope Benedict XVI stepping down last month after eight years in office.

    In all, 115 cardinal electors, those below the age of 80, are involved in the process.

    The secret ballot will involve the cardinals writing the name of their preferred candidate on a slip of paper – trying to disguise their handwriting if possible – which they will then place on a tray with the ballot then sliding into an urn.

    Once all the votes are counted by the scrutineers they are pierced with a needle through the Latin word “Eligendo” (I elect) and a thread is fed through them.

    The voting papers are put into a 74-year-old stove, which has been specially installed in the Sistine Chapel, and burnt. Chemicals are added to produce white smoke to show a winner has emerged, and black if there is still no decision.

  • Pope… The countdown begins

    Pope… The countdown begins

    The Sistine Chapel is ready. The new pope’s clothes are laid out. Now it’s up to the cardinals.

    The work to elect a successor to retired Pope Benedict XVI begins in earnest today, with a morning Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica.

    The service— open to the public — will be the last public event featuring the 115 cardinals who will choose the new spiritual leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics.

    Cardinals taking part in the process will then walk to the Sistine Chapel, chanting prayers as they go, to begin the secret election called the conclave.

    After that, the only clue the world will have of what is happening inside will be periodic puffs of smoke from a copper chimney installed over the weekend in the Sistine Chapel.

    Black smoke, no pope. White smoke, success.

    Rome was abuzz yesterday with preparations for the conclave, from the 5,600 journalists the Vatican said had been accredited to cover the event to the red curtains unfurled from the central balcony at St. Peter’s, the spot where the world will meet the new pope once he is elected.

    Tailors have also completed sets of clothes for the new pope to wear as soon as he is elected.

    Video released by the Vatican over the weekend showed the installation of a pair of stoves inside the chapel. One is used to burn the cardinals’ ballots after they are cast and the other to send up the smoke signal — the one that alerts the world that a vote has been taken and whether there’s a new pope.

    Workers could be seen scaling the roof of the chapel Saturday to install the chimneys that will carry the smoke signals to the world.

    When we’ll see the first smoke is anyone’s guess.

    The cardinals will probably vote Tuesday, but they don’t have to, Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said Monday.

    If they do, it’s likely the first smoke might be seen around 8 p.m. (3 p.m. ET), he said.

    When cardinals elected Benedict in 2005, the white smoke signaling the decision came about six hours after an earlier, inconclusive vote, he said.

    It took another 50 minutes for Benedict to dress, pray and finally appear on the balcony of St. Peter’s, he said.

    The longest conclave held since the turn of the 20th century lasted five days.

    Yesterday, cardinals held the last of several days of meetings to discuss church affairs and get acquainted. Lombardi said 152 cardinals were on hand for the final meeting.

    Church rules prevent cardinals over the age of 80 from participating in the election of a pope but allow them to attend the “General Congregations” that precede the vote.

    On Friday, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, one of about a dozen leading candidates to become pope, said the meetings have focused less on scandals facing the church and more on spiritual matters.

    “We cardinals sure are praying a lot,” Dolan wrote.

    Contrary to media reports, he wrote in a blog post, the focus of the cardinals’ meetings is much the same as it was two millenniums ago, namely: “How most effectively to present the Person, message, and invitation of Jesus to a world that, while searching for salvation and eternal truth, are also at times doubting, skeptical, too busy, or frustrated.”

    He said, “Those are the ‘big issues.’ You may find that hard to believe, since the ‘word on the street’ is that all we talk about is corruption in the Vatican, sexual abuse, money. Do these topics come up? Yes! Do they dominate? No!”

    The scandals came up again yesterday when the Vatican Press Office denied conclave accreditation to Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, who wrote a book about scandals within the Vatican. The book was based partly on documents leaked from Benedict’s personal apartments.

    Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi told CNN the accreditation had been denied because Nuzzi applied as a documentary filmmaker, not as a journalist.

    Meanwhile, the Italian press is full of speculation about which cardinal may win enough support from his counterparts to be elected, and what regional alliances are being formed.

    The United States has 11 of the 115 votes, making it the second largest national bloc after Italy.

    Sixty of the cardinals are from Europe and 67 were appointed by Benedict, who stepped down at the end of last month, becoming the first pontiff to do so in six centuries.

    As possible front-runners emerged ahead of a conclave to elect the next pope, Roman Catholic cardinals yesterday wrapped up a week of discussion on issues facing the church, with some pushing unsuccessfully to extend their talks before the start of balloting.

    In their last scheduled pre-conclave gathering yesterday, 28 cardinals addressed their colleagues, more than in any of the other sessions of the so-called general congregations. Over 150 speeches have been made since the meetings started last Monday.

    After numerous cardinals discussed the Vatican’s scandal-ridden and much criticized internal workings over the week, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state, on Monday addressed attempts to bring transparency to the Vatican bank, which has long been tainted by money-laundering allegations.

    By the end of the morning, more cardinals were still waiting to speak, prompting a vote of whether to hold an extra session, which was defeated.

    Instead, cardinals took the afternoon off to continue private talks on who should replace Pope Benedict XVI, who resigned on Feb. 28. The 115 cardinal electors have already pushed back their expected move into Vatican accommodations reserved for them during the conclave from Monday night to Tuesday morning.

    The cardinals are scheduled to unpack their bags at the Casa Santa Marta complex at 7 a.m. local time Tuesday, then attend a pre-conclave Mass with the public in St. Peter’s Basilica before filing into the Sistine Chapel at 4:30 p.m. for the first ballot.

    The cardinals are due to return to their residence at 7:30 p.m., but Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi noted that at the last conclave in 2005 the black smoke announcing no result on the first day of voting was emitted about 8 p.m.

    “The first vote can take more time,” he said. “Dinner may slip but we can keep it warm.”

    With a number of front-runners reportedly emerging among the cardinals, no choice is expected on the first ballot. The electors are said to have split roughly into two groups — those who wish to reform the Vatican’s bureaucracy and are backing Italian Cardinal Angelo Scola, and cardinals who work at the Vatican who back Brazilian Cardinal Odilo Scherer, who has himself worked in the Curia.

    Other candidates such as Canada’s Marc Ouellet and charismatic Americans Timothy Dolan and Sean O’Malley are also predicted to win votes in the early ballots. With four ballots a day from Wednesday onward, one scenario envisages either Scola or Scherer building votes as ballots proceed, to reach the two-thirds majority of 77 votes required to be elected pope.

    But should a standoff emerge between the two camps, compromise candidates may emerge, just as Karol Wojtyla emerged in 1978 as a late candidate and went on to become Pope John Paul II after two Italian cardinals were at loggerheads.

    French Cardinal André Vingt-Trois has said there are as many as a dozen candidates who could take votes in the first ballot.

    Separately, the 90 staffers who will attend to the cardinals during the conclave — doctors, cooks, cleaners and drivers — were yesterday afternoon sworn to secrecy.

  • Africans ready for African Pope, says survey

    Africans ready for African Pope, says survey

    More than 80% of Africans believe their continent is ready for an African pope, but only 61% believe the world is, an exclusive survey for CNN has found.

    The survey of 20,000 Africans from 11 nations, carried out on mobile phones by crowdsourcing company Jana, also found that 86% thought an African pope would increase support for Catholicism in Africa.

    Almost two-thirds of those surveyed thought that the Vatican was ready for an African pontiff, while more than 50% believed the church would become more conservative under an African pope.

    Respondents aged between 13 and 19 were slightly less likely to feel that their continent was ready for an African head of the church, with 22% saying it was not ready, while only 14.6% of those polled over 40 felt the same way.

    CNN also asked those surveyed what an African pope would mean for the continent and for them personally.

    The resulting comments revealed a wide range of views on the church’s role in the continent, on faith, homosexuality and racism.

    “It would help strengthen the faith and belief of all African Catholics,” one Ghanaian said. “They will feel a part of the church.”

    “An African pope will bring about more unity on the continent and confidence in Africans,” one woman from Zimbabwe said, while a young Nigerian man polled said an African pope “will eradicate immoralities, such as same-sex marriage and such like.”

    Others, however, were more circumspect about what an African pope would mean for the continent and its Catholics.

    “I don’t have a problem [with it], but will he stop the ongoing war in some African countries?” one Namibian responder said.

    “He may be like the rest of them and just stay in the church; anyway they don’t make any difference in Africa.”

    A Zimbabwean man surveyed also said he feared that an African pope would not be treated equally to those who had previously held the office.

    “I think at first people might not accept him and it would take a long time for him to blend in, so his impact will not be that great.”

    Jana conducted the poll between 7-11 March 2013 with mobile phone users from 11 nations — Lesotho, Rwanda, Namibia, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, and Nigeria.

     

  • The Next Pope could be a Brazilian banker

    The Next Pope could be a Brazilian banker

    As a conclave gathers to elect a new pope, many in the Catholic world and well beyond speculate about who will replace the now Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who abdicated the throne of St. Peter on February 11, the first papal resignation in almost 600 years. It is true that in the secretive world of the Vatican there is no way to know who is in the running, not to mention that history has yielded plenty of surprises, but there are a few names that have come up time and again as “papabile,” a term coined by Vaticanologists to describe the likely contenders to be elected pontiff. One of those names is that of Brazilian cardinal Odilo Scherer, Brazil‘s best hope to be the next pope.

    At the relatively young age of 63, Scherer is known for enthusiastically embracing all new methods for reaching believers. He has appeared on Brazil’s most popular late-night talk-show. He is a prolific tweeter. He even prefers to squeeze into the busy and crowded subway of Sao Paulo, where he was appointed archbishop in 2007 and was named a cardinal later the same year, on his way to his morning commutes.

    Scherer, who speaks Italian, German and Portuguese fluently and is proficient in English, French and Spanish, is also known as one of the “Vatican bankers,” a committee of cardinals who oversee the Istituto per la Opere di Religione (IOR), or the Institute for Works of Religion, commonly known as the Vatican Bank, as well as being a member of The Prefecture for Economic Affairs, which coordinates the finances of the Holy See. Scherer was a constant presence in Rome during the “Vatileaks” scandal, the leaking of Vatican documents allegedly exposing corruption and money laundering charges that cost the church millions in higher contract prices and cost Ettore Gotti Tedesche, the then-CEO of the IOR, his job.

    Considering that many of the church’s recent controversies involved the institution, electing a pope that is familiar with the matter seems like a step in the right direction. Besides, Scherer is said to be highly respected by Benedict XVI, and he is well acquainted with social problems in Sao Paulo, a cosmopolitan city of 11 million people where the archbishop oversees parishes facing high poverty rates, crime, youth unemployment and lack of basic services, which may be useful to his possible quest of leading the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, the majority of whom are in the developing world.

    “I would say that Scherer is the best bet,” said American John Allen Jr, a respected Vatican expert and author of several books on the Catholic Church. “He has a good reputation and is admired here (in the Vatican),” the daily O Globo quoted Allen as saying recently.

    Although Scherer, like most of the peers, sticks to conservative Roman Catholic doctrine, he’s taken stands just as strong on liberal issues. Scherer has praised the advances made by liberation theology, a movement that uses Jesus’ teachings to fight social injustice, in helping Brazil’s poor. His support for the movement is also a way to stem the growing influence of evangelical Protestants, especially the ‘neo-Pentecostal’ ones, on Brazil’s religious scene.

    The seventh of 13 children in a family that descended from German immigrants, born and raised in southern Brazil, Scherer could be the surprise of the conclave. His German ancestry connects him to Europe, where the church is losing ground. At the same time, he comes from Latin America, a region that is home to about 40% of the world’s Catholics.

    And he is up to date with the Vatican finances, a subject that will certainly play an important role in the choosing of the next pope, as the cardinals who are already in Rome for the conclave were briefed last Thursday on the church’s money, its bureaucracy and continued suspicions about its bank.

    When it comes to assets, the Catholic Church could be considered one of the world’s largest corporations (the Sistine Chapel alone is believed to be worth in excess of $800 million). By that standpoint, wouldn’t it make sense choosing someone financially-oriented as the next pope?

    Brazilians like to say that God is Brazilian. If not, maybe His next earthly representative will be.

     

  • Pope: Cardinals meet ahead of conclave

    Pope: Cardinals meet ahead of conclave

    The Catholic Church’s 115 cardinal electors were due to meet on Monday in the Vatican on the eve of the conclave that will elect a new pope following Benedict XVI’s resignations.

    The 10th General Congregation represents the last opportunity for the so-called Princes of the Church to discuss the main issues facing the next pontificate, and the man best suited to tackle them.

    The News Agency of Nigeria reports that pre-conclave discussions have so far focused on the need to reform the Church’s governing council, the Curia, following the Vatileaks scandals, which have exposed infighting in the church and alleged sexual abuses within the church in Europe and America.

    Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi has said he expects a “short conclave.’’

    “I can assure you that of the 115 electors, there aren’t many who have to worry about which name they would have to choose as pope,’’ Lombardi said at the weekend, in remarks seen as suggesting that the race for the papacy is restricted to only a few names.

    Expectations for a quick conclave have been echoed by Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, who late on Sunday played down rumours of strong disagreement among the electors and predicted that a new pope would be elected “in a few days.’’

    Most Vatican experts predict a race between reformists, headed by the likes of Cardinal Angelo Scola of Milan and Marc Ouellet of Canada, and conservatives such as Cardinal Pedro Odilo Scherer of Brazil.

    A compromise candidate could well emerge in the form of Peter Erdo of Hungary.

     

  • The pope and African dinosaurs

    The pope and African dinosaurs

    What was going through the minds of Africa’s political dinosaurs as Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation on February 11? What were the Mugabes of Africa thinking as the Catholic pontiff said he was stepping down from his exalted office?

    Many are honoured to kiss his papal gold ring. Multitudes struggle to touch him.  Amongst Catholics, there is a strong feeling of being lifted upon being blessed by the Pope. Yet, a great deal of that gave way as Pope Benedict ceased to be the head of the Catholic Church on Thursday.

    There was more he left behind. His sovereignty was chief of them. Although the Vatican is essentially a city, making it the world’s smallest nation, yet it is self-governing all the same, and the pope is its head. He answers to no council chairman or city mayor. There is no state governor to dictate to him, and no president or prime minister to sanction him. The pope is sovereign. When he travels the world, presidents receive him warmly and listen when he speaks. Millions across the world hold him dear as their spiritual father.

    What were Africa’s long-reigning despots thinking that Monday morning as Pope Benedict shocked the Catholic world and much of humanity with his decision to give up all the power and privileges?

    I can bet some of them may have concluded the Pope has lost his mind. Some within the Catholic fold have asked the Pope to rescind his decision, saying the head of the church does not traditionally resign. Indeed, no Pope stepped down in 600 years, which is why the Catholic world has been grappling with unusual challenges for two odd weeks now. One of those challenges is what Pope Benedict shall be called since Catholics are not used to a living ex-pontiff. Will he revert to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger? After some thinking, they have decided to call him Pope emeritus. The man himself has pledged “unconditional obedience” to his successor, forestalling another possible problem of loyalty.

    But I am certain that on February 11, the issues of post-Benedict XVI in the church were not on the minds of expired African leaders who have sworn to die in office rather than leave the scene.

    Pope Benedict XVI stepped down on account of old age and frailty which come in the way of effective discharge of duties. At 85, he is well aware that he lacks the energy of travel, of regular church supervision and of such other demanding responsibilities with which popes are saddled. He reckons that his office demands more than he can give. I also believe he places his health above the perks of office. More crucially, I think Pope Benedict was persuaded to let the whole world know that someone else can also do the job.

    All of that is nonsense to our sit-tight leaders whose time elapsed decades ago though they have chosen to hang on till death part them and the office they hold. At 70 they believe life has just started and that they can outrun a cheetah. At 80 they think there is none wiser who can lead the country better.  When they leave the plane of self-deceit, they descend into mindless corruption schemes. They design self-perpetuation plots to secure their ill-gotten wealth. These are the people who have made the continent a laughingstock among the nations and continents of the world. These walking relics of bygone ages have made a mockery of Africa and its people.

    By 2009 when he died in office, Omar Bongo was 74, more than half of which he spent in Gabon’s Government House as president. Within that time he had  changed the name of his hometown from Lewai to Bongoville and combined the office of president with those of defence, information, planning and prime minister, among others. He also managed to secure choice properties and assets in the sweetest parts of Europe. France was a favourite ground to show off his many acquisitions and his well-tailored trousers. He knew where to source high-heeled shoes to disguise his vertical challenge. Till his death, the official word was that he was fit as a fiddle.

    Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, 71, has been ruling Equatorial Guinea since 1979 and is clearly Africa’s longest-serving president. His country is among the world’s biggest oil producers but his people are ranked among the poorest, while he is reckoned to be in the league of the richest. If he does not die in office, he is very likely to hand over to his son.

    Robert Mugabe, 89 last month, is easily Africa’s oldest non-monarch leader, though neither his country, Zimbabwe, nor the rest of the continent is proud of that. He looks destined to die in office. Paul Biya, 80 in February, has been in power since 1975, first as prime minister and then president.

    These are the dinosaurs of Africa, who, between them, have inspired other Africans to seek power and hold on to it until death do them part. We have seen enough of that reckless ambition in Nigeria, through the military days down to what we call democracy now.

    I have no experience of Catholicism but I believe the pope has left a good legacy. He preferred to shock his two billion congregation with the suddenness of his resignation rather than grieve them and himself with incapacitation. Our African dinosaurs know that they are unloved but do not care whether we weep or rejoice when they die in office. All they care about is themselves.

     

  • No hope for an African Pope?

    No hope for an African Pope?

    SIR: I do not know whether religion is a reflection of Man’s dream to become god. But I do know that Rev. Georg Ratzinger (elder brother of Pope Benedict) is playing god in the affairs of who becomes the new Pope.

    According to him, “In Europe we have many very able people and the Africans are still not so well known and maybe do not have the experience yet”.

    Certainly Rev. Georg Ratzinger belongs to the class of men who seek to further the excessive segregation in the church. To submit that Africans are still not so well known is not only mendacious but a reflection of incurable ignorance and unforgivable spiritual criminality. Since the Bible contain stories of Africans and Africa, then who is Rev. Georg Ratzinger to say that we are still not so well known? Sincerely the Bible makes him a pathological liar. I suggest that the man should refer to his Bible for details.

    In his reasoning, African’s do not have the experience to lead the Catholic Church. I ask what; experience does Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana and Cardinal Francis Arinze of Nigeria need again after serving the church for donkey years? Is it that our African Cardinals cannot officiate mass with theological impeccability, pray the rosary with spiritual efficacy, give communion and perform other public functions with uncommon dexterity? The man would have won my admiration if he had said that the pope is an exclusive reserve for the whites.

    However, I urge the catholic faithful of African extraction to remain strong in faith despite the attempt to make the issue of who becomes the next Pope a matter of white versus black. But let’s not forget to thank our God because God is neither white nor black. Those who know Rev. George Ratzinger should not forget to let him know that in America, his types stood against African-Americans on the basis of colour. But today, history has shown that they can’t be defeated any time. If he does not understand, he should go ask President Barack Obama.

    I call on lovers of God and humanity to resist those who seek to build the church on the pillars of black and white dichotomy. Racism has no place in the church.

    Godfrey Ehi O.

    Benin City

     

  • If Pope Benedict were to be a Nigerian

    If Pope Benedict were to be a Nigerian

    When I got the news flash on my BBM that the Pope Benedict XVI plans to quit the post of Bishop of Rome and spiritual head of the 1.2 billion catholic faithful around the globe by the end of February, my mind immediately pointed at fraudsters at work. What won’t this 419 people do, I asked?

    With more than six weeks to April 1, the world acclaimed “Fools Day” I was in no doubt that this was no April fool and mischief makers are somewhere trying to pull our legs or planning to make money out of the Catholic Church. So, I ignored the message and moved on even though the sender of message is well known to me as a credible source.

    The reporter in me told me to suspect the information first but go ahead to verify which I did some few hours later when I went on the net and was confronted with details of Pope Benedicts decision to quit the highest office in the Catholic church.

    Whaaat! I screamed. This has never happened before, I told myself, but upon further research I discovered that in the year 1294, Pope Celestine V resigned because he could not cope with the physical demands of that office and wanted a simpler life. And as recent as 1415 Pope Gregory XII left office to save the Church from disgrace as there were two Cardinals laying claim to the papacy. So Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as he was before he became Pope Benedict in April 2005 at age 78 was after all not doing what no Pope had done before, as I had thought, just that he was the first in about 600 to quit the papacy.

    So, why the decision to quit? I am sure you know the rest of the story but for the sake of emphasis and to quell all conspiracy theories, the Pope said his failing health at 85 would not allow him to, in good conscience, discharge his papal duties as he ought to and so he would be stepping down later this month, in time for a new Pope to be chosen and consecrated before Easter.

    On reflection, I asked myself if this Pope were to be a Nigerian would he offer to quit such an exalted office even if he is unable to discharge his duties to God and the Church. An office in which he is expected to remain for life?

    Well, without casting aspersions on the integrity of the Catholic Church in Nigeria and the Cardinals that have emerged from among the faithful here, this is a very difficult question to answer even by Nigerian Catholics. And the reason is not far fetched. Leaders find it very difficult here to quit office even when they are on tenured appointment. They look for one excuse or another to extend their tenure and the Church is no exception. And I am sure if one digs deep enough, one could find some Islamic leaders who would rather die in office instead of relinquishing their positions even when they are no longer up to it.

    The argument here is not even about any sit tight religious leader but rather our political leaders who would want to hold on to their positions even when it was apparent their health was not good enough to continue in office. We all know the story of our late President, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. Governor Chime of Enugu State just came back home after several months outside the country to treat what we now know to be cancer of the nose. While he was on hospital bed wherever he went to seek cure for his ailment, Chime refused to hand over the reins of power as if it were a personal property. It took a lot of efforts and months to get the Taraba House of Assembly to empower the Deputy Governor of the State to act in the absence of Governor Suntai who is on a sick bed somewhere in Germany receiving treatment for injuries he sustained in a plane crash. A badly injured Governor Idris Wada of Kogi State had to be rushed back to office even when he had not fully recovered from the injuries he sustained in an auto crash, just to prevent his deputy from acting as governor, as the Nigerian constitution demands, while he treats his injuries. Nobody seems to be talking again about the long absence of Governor Liyel Imoke of Cross River State from office. The man has been away for some time now to treat himself of yet to be disclosed ailment and he is still holding on to power. Why did the constitution make provision for a deputy Governor or vice President if the boss so to speak, could hold on to power even when he is dying? You might want to ask. Even if the deputy is a ‘spare tyre’ as we are wont to say here, why would the driver continue with a punctured or flat tyre when the spare tyre is ok? The ride will definitely not be smooth. So why put everybody in the car through that horrible ride when the spare tyre could have come in handy?

    For too long Nigeria has been unlucky to produce selfish leaders who see and parade themselves as messiahs. Obasanjo believed he is the only one that could lead this country well and onto the Promised Land such that even after eight years in office, he wanted to manipulate the constitution to get another term. Yar’Adua and his handlers including wife, Turai saw Nigeria as their personal property and could do as they wished. When the President was evidently dying they still held on to power until the man could no longer be sustained by life machine at a Saudi hospital. They tried to hoodwink us into believing that the ailing President had signed that year’s appropriation bill even when sources told us the man could hardly recognize anybody not even his wife. Nigerians were deceived for months and taken for a ride for so long until Yar’Adua died.

    Pope Benedict and/or his handlers/close associates could have chosen to deceive the Catholic Church by manipulating the health certificate of the ailing Pontiff presenting to the faithful a picture of a healthy Pope, as Yar’Adua people did to us, and remain in office and enjoy the pecks of office until death takes their man away. But out of fear of God and love for the Church they chose not to. This is the way honourable people and people of conscience behave. Do we have such people in Nigeria?

    Maybe the Catholic Church is lucky as their priests are not allowed to indulge in the affairs of the flesh, so the Pope has no wife to influence his decision or biological children to think of before acting. No wife or children that would want him to remain in office till death even when he is weak, tired and unable to continue, just to have access to the enormous wealth of the church and the privileges attached to the office.

    We have seen most Pentecostal churches in Nigeria turned into a family business where the GO and his wife are sole signatories to the Church’s account and the wife taking over on the death of her husband. Was this the way Christ intended his Church?

    Away from the Church, we have seen Presidents and their wives running the country as a family business, where the wife as First Lady assumes the powers of her husband the Commander-In-Chief and go about terrorizing the rest of us; spending state’s money on anything that catches their fancy. The same scenario is replicated at the state and even local government levels. With our leaders invested with so much power, power of life and death, unlimited access to loot our treasury and with impunity, none of them would want to leave office even if they are dying. None of them has the heart and conviction of Pope Benedict. The beautiful ones are not yet born.