Vatican Ambassador says Holy Spirit will pick Benedict XVI’s successor
By Paul Obi and Sheriff Balogun with agency reports
About 115 Catholic cardinals across the world will converge today on the Vatican City to begin the search for a new pope in the next two weeks after the ceremonies that heralded the exit of the former Pope, Benedict XVI.
The cardinals are expected to meet in the morning, and later reconvene in the evening, where deliberations will commence on the way forward on how to elect the new pope.
The Vatican Ambassador to Nigeria, Most Rev Augustine Kasujja, said yesterday in Abeokuta that in picking a new pope, the cardinals would be guided by Canon laws and the Holy Spirit.
It was learnt that part of what will preoccupy the cardinals in choosing a successor to Benedict XVI would include the need for church spiritual unity and most importantly bureaucratic reforms.
There are fears among conservative elements within the hierarchy of the church of electing a liberal cardinal to head the church at this trying moments, where moral values are fast eroding among its teeming 1.2 billion members, especially in Europe and America.
Chief among what may constitute a contentious issue is celibacy given the campaign among Catholic priests in the west for the abolishment of celibacy, a policy the church will not want to succumb to.
Another raging issue is the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR) also known as the Vatican Bank; most of the top members of the College of Cardinals are believed to be aggrieved with the way the bank has been managed which led to some scandals in the church in recent times.
Also, the cardinals will be looking among themselves for a candidate who can purge out materialism that is creeping into the church to take over the papal seat.
One of the cardinals, Oscar Rodriguez from Honduras, told Vatican Radio that materialism of money, individualism and idealism remain the greatest threat to faith and spirituality in the church.
“God has been displayed by materialism, and the church exists to announce God and his loving care of the world. This is our main challenge,” he said.
Rodriguez said the cardinals, in deciding who heads the church, “must face the challenges that face the church” and that there is also the need to resolve how to evangelise in different ways across the continents.
Though, Benedict XVI at his last meeting with the cardinals was said to have kept the discussions short without giving out details of the expected reforms, a dossier is under lock and key at the official papal’s residence, where Vatican analysts believed most of the reforms and other secrets are kept until a new pope is elected.
The Vatican ambassador, in responding to inquires on whether or not an African stands a chance of succeeding the former pope, said nobody could be sure who would be the next pope until the cardinals, guided by Canon laws and the Holy Spirit, have decided on one of them to lead the church
Most Rev Kasujja who visited the Catholic Diocese of Abeokuta while observing Mass at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church College, Abeokuta, said the emergence of whoever would succeed the Pope emeritus could not be influenced by anybody.
According to him, the doctrine of Catholic and whoever occupies certain position has always been done through the Cannon law and as such, nobody can say an African, Asian or American is going to be the pope.
“What would be a good thing for the church is to have someone who has the fear of God and who knows what it is like being a person of faith in ordinary life now,” he said.
Since the former pope announced his resignation, there had been speculation that there might be a dramatic shift in the Roman Catholic Church to choose the new pope from the developing world.
Among those favoured are Peter Cardinal Turkson of Ghana and Francis Cardinal Arinze of Nigeria who are in the strongest frame to become the first ever-black pope in history.
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