Is the world ready for a black pope?

[struggle4progress]

VATICAN CITY, April 16 - On crosses and paintings in Catholic Churches throughout Africa, Jesus is depicted as black -- a suffering man on a suffering continent. <snip>

"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. <snip>

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. <snip>

"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. <snip>

http://mangalorean.com/news.php?newstype=local&newsid=14931

[Xithras]

1. There have been black popes before.

Saint Miliades I, Saint Gelasius I, and Saint Victor I were all Popes from Africa. They reigned at a time before creating paintings of people was popular in the Church, but it's known that both Miliades and Victor came from black areas of Africa, and it's extremely likely that they were themselves black. Gelasius was born in Rome of African parents, and it's unclear whether he was white or black.

There haven't been any in about 1500 years, but it's not unprecedented. Blacks stopped being appointed to the position when the Muslims overran North Africa and the Church lost it's influence there...it had nothing to do with racism.

[DemBones DemBones]

4. St. Augustine was black, I believe. nt

[Princess Turandot]

2. Hell, they accepted a Polack..

which I can say since that's one half of my ethnic background - my mother used to say JPII was 'one tough Polack' as he came thru one catastrophe after another.

I think World catholics would accept a Pope of any ethnicity.
I'm not sure what the good people of Rome would think however.

[DemBones DemBones]

3. In my experience, which includes

traveling with black college students in our group, Italians are not racist. In fact, black Americans feel that they are treated better, "watched" less, etc., in Italy than in the U.S. Black posters at DU have said basically the same thing about being anywhere in Europe.

An Italian friend was once complaining about immigrants but when I asked him about specific groups of immigrants he assured me that Africans, although increasingly numerous, were no problem. "They work," he said, reserving his annoyance for some others who don't. If Italians are accepting of the many African immigrants in their cities, surely they would be accepting of an African Pope.

[Cuban_Liberal]

5. I agree.

:)

[Princess Turandot]

6. You misunderstood me. I meant that the Italians seem eager to

have an Italian pope again. Nothing in my post said that I thought Italians were racists.

[DemBones DemBones]

7. What you said was:

"I think World catholics would accept a Pope of any ethnicity.
I'm not sure what the good people of Rome would think however."


That seemed to me to question if Romans/ Italians would accept a black pope.

I do think many Italians would like to see another Italian pope.

[Spider Jerusalem]

8. That desire seems understandable, in a sense...

after all, the Pope is the Bishop of Rome...but it seems that the Italians ought to take into consideration the fact that the Pope's role is ALSO as Father of the Universal Church, and not JUST Bishop of Rome...which rather seems to outweigh any narrow, parochial concerns. And Italians wield less power in this conclave than in any previous, so the odds on another non-Italian seem rather good.

[TygrBright]

9. The ironic thing about this is that...

...it took a Polish Pope (JPII) to really revive the practice of being an active parochial leader of the Roman diocese.

Centuries of Italian (and Roman!) popes had appointed deputies or just ignored simple pastoral duties in the local Roman Churches.

Until his health began to fail, JPII made it a regular practice to say Mass, hear confessions, perform weddings and funerals, etc., in many Roman churches, and he personally oversaw and supervised the ordination, selection, and supervision of diocesan priests and Monsignori for the Roman parishes.

It is ironic to reflect that in Rome, a city known for its worldly and cynical attitude toward the Church (hardly surprising, given their up-close-and-personal front row seats to some of the most undignified episodes in Church history,) it took a Pole to evoke the warmth and acceptance of local Catholics. They loved him. It's one of the best things I know of JPII. (And I cherish many 'good things' about his actions, especially in the early days, no matter how vigorously I disagreed with his essential conservatism.)

bemusedly,
Bright