In a few months, a new Pope will be elected. For a billion Roman Catholics, that means the election of a new spiritual leader for the church. For Protestants who do not recognize the Pope as anything other than a fellow follower of Christ, it means little or even nothing.
Who serves as the Bishop of Rome matters (or should at least) to every Christian in the world because, for better or worse, the Pope is the public face of the faith. His priorities for the church dominate much of the worldwide focus Christianity and occupy much of the media attention paid to matters of faith.
So who will it be? Who will the voting members of the College of Cardinals elect to be the next Pope?
Lacking anything remotely resembling inside knowledge, my own thoughts on the papal election come from what is said in the press and what little I have read of the papabile's writings. One thing I think we can be certain of is that the new Pope will be conservative. Do we really expect an establishment body to elect a leader who will disrupt the status quo too much? Church teaching on issues like abortion, celibacy for priests and women in ministry are not Going to change anytime soon. (If Mother Theresa could not loosen the lid on that jar, I'm not holding my breath.).
Still, although we mainline Protestants may not come to terms with some theological positions of the church in Rome, we may yet find blessing in this election; depending on who is elected.
Among odds makers, a few favorites have emerged but as in most conclaves, the election is far from a lock for anyone. (Think John XXIII or John Paul II)
Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York is the only American mentioned to any serious degree. Of all the candidates, he will be the most unfortunate choice for the larger church. Whatever his gifts, Dolan is so closely associated with the cover-up of clergy child sexual abuse that little else will be seen.
If the church just has to stick with a European, Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin would be a bold choice. Though not a cardinal, his election would make the opposite statement a Dolan election would make. Martin led the church in Ireland through both the Ryan and Murphy reports on child sexual abuse and in the end he showed far greater pastoral leadership and responsibility than the Roman Curia including the current Pope could be bothered to show. A Martin election would be both an act of acknowledgement by the church of its past sins and a statement that cover-up is no longer the party line. No choice will be totally outside of the box, but Martin would be more outside than most.
Two African and a few Latin American cardinals are mentioned. I don't know much a out any of them. Generally speaking, the cardinals who serve in the two-thirds world have a perspective on the realities of poverty, economic and political oppression, the burdens of environmental destruction and climate change, and, in the case of Africa especially, the reality of HIV/AIDS that their north Atlantic rim colleagues do not. Having a Pope whose ministry has been partly defined by first hand experience in a non-European context and outside the debates of the privileged class (when you are starving, do you really care if your priest gets married?) will help shape the public face of the faith in a new way. While the Christian world may remain divided on matters of polity and doctrine, our commitment to the poor and the oppressed should be universal. A Pope whose ministry is focused on the world's poor would be a great blessing to the potential of unity in the church's ministry if not its hierarchy.
One caution about the African candidates may be their relationship with Islam. Both Cardinal Arinze of Nigeria and Cardinal Turkson of Ghana have made statements about Islam that raise questions about their willingness to engage in dialogue across the boundaries of faith. If these men temper their rhetoric about Islam, the election of a Pope from the two-thirds world may be a great blessing for the church universal. If not, the good that may come from a Non-European Pope would be diminished.
Canadian cardinal Marc Ouelett has openly criticized what sees as the drift of the post-Vatican II church away from mission toward dialogue. He too may hamper inter-religious relationships. To his credit, he managed to lead the church with grace in one of the most hostile and secular places in the world; French-Canadian Quebec. a theologian focused on contemporary issues facing the global church rather than one focused on the nuance of ancient doctrine would be a refreshing change.
Whoever wears the "Shoes of the Fisherman," he will be the face and voice of global Christianity. Hopefully he will use that voice to rally the church, Catholic and catholic, to the cause of the world's poor and oppressed in a way seldom done in recent memory. Although the Pope holds no spiritual or ecclesiastical authority for me or the church I serve, he does have the bulliest of bully pulpits and his words will shape much of our shared life as a global church.
For that reason alone, this Presbyterian will be anxiously waiting for the white smoke from the Sistine Chapel and the announcement from the balcony "habemus papem!"
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