How will the Italians handle it if their Pope is Black and from Africa?

I am not Racist at all but I am curious how the World and especially Italy, would handle a black Pope?

Is the world ready for a black pope?




By Philip Pullella
REUTERS
9:47 a.m. April 15, 2005

VATICAN CITY – On crosses and paintings in Catholic Churches throughout Africa, Jesus is depicted as black – a suffering man on a suffering continent.

Now some say the time may have come for cardinals to consider a black African for the papacy when they enter the conclave on Monday.


´I think that an African pope would show the world that the Catholic Church is no longer a white or European institution but a truly universal Church that includes all races, all cultures and all nationalities,´ said Father Tom Reese, a leading Church historian.

´I think it would be a positive thing,´ Reese, an American Jesuit who is author of the book ´Inside the Vatican´ and editor of the U.S. Jesuit weekly America, told Reuters.

The leading African candidate is Cardinal Francis Arinze, a 72-year-old Nigerian who has worked at the Vatican for more than 20 years, mostly as the pope´s point man for Islamic relations.

While he is not the only African candidate, his combination of Vatican knowledge, theological conservatism, pastoral experience and deep spirituality makes him the favourite.

An African pope was unthinkable in the last conclave in 1978, but for some so was a non-Italian.

Still, that conclave elected Karol Wojtyla of Poland as the first non-Italian in 455 years and traditions went up in the smoke of the Sistine Chapel chimney.

Many now say an African pope – who would be the first in more than 1,500 years – could bring attention to the continent´s dire problems just as John Paul did to the East-West divide.

´He would play both a spiritual and secular role. If there is an African Pope, it would mean the Church in Africa has come of age, that we are now an adult Church,´ said Father Gabriel Osu, communications director for the Lagos archdiocese.

´And because the Pope, anywhere in the world, is highly respected, people would listen to him, particularly in conflict resolution,´ he said.

´He would be so influential among African leaders that they would have to be more careful, live and act with more rectitude. They would have to behave better with their people.´


NON-CATHOLICS ALSO CHEERLEADERS

Not only Catholics think an African Pope could help the world´s poorest continent, ravaged by AIDS, civil wars, hunger and occasional flashpoints of religious strife.

´One would hope that such a candidate would bring the concerns of Africa and the Third World as a priority to the agenda of the Church and the world,´ said Desmond Tutu, South Africa´s Anglican archbishop and Nobel Peace Prize winner.

Africa, where Catholicism is growing the fastest, is where Christians and Muslims live side-by-side and often clash.

´As a Muslim cleric, I think an African Pope would be likely to have a better perspective on African problems,´ said Mohamed ibn Usman, member of the Sharia implementation commission in Kano, Nigeria´s biggest Islamic state.

´He could talk to world powers, to the Americans and also draw attention to the non-Christians in the world, to the Muslims,´ he said.

An African pope, or any pope for that matter, would have to be concerned with the entire world, but experts open to an African papacy see no problem with that.

´John Paul II did not just visit Eastern Europe, he went everywhere he could and an African pope would have to be concerned with the problems of Latin America and the West as well,´ said Reese, the American Jesuit.

Is the world and the Catholic Church ready for a non-white pope?

´I think the real question is how would an African be accepted by the rest of the Church ... We still have a lot of racism,´ said Reese. ´I personally think that any Catholic who cannot accept a black pope doesn´t belong in the Catholic Church.´

(Additional reporting by Gordon Bell in Cape Town and Silvia Aloisi in Lagos)