Can Latin American claim papacy?

Roman Catholic clergy from Latin America cited as being possible candidates to be the next Pope. From left:  Brazilian cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz, Sao Paulo archbishop Odilo Scherer and Argentine cardinal Leonardo Sandri.

By Tom Heneghan/Reuters

With Pope Benedict’s stunning announcement that he will resign later this month, the time may be coming for the Roman Catholic Church to elect its first non-European leader and it could be a Latin American. The region already represents 42% of the world’s 1.2bn-strong Catholic population, the largest single block in the Church, compared to 25% in its European heartland.

After the Pope John Paul and German-born Benedict, the post once reserved for Italians is now open to all. The new pope will be the man that the cardinals who elect him at the next conclave think will guide the Church best. Two senior Vatican officials recently dropped surprisingly clear hints about possible successors. The upshot of their remarks is that the next pope could well be from Latin America.

“I know a lot of bishops and cardinals from Latin America who could take responsibility for the universal Church,” said Archbishop Gerhard Mueller, who now holds the pope’s old post as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. “The universal Church teaches that Christianity isn’t centred on Europe,” the German-born archbishop told ‘Duesseldorf’s Rheinische Post’ newspaper just before Christmas.

Swiss Cardinal Kurt Koch, head of the Vatican department for Christian unity, told the ‘Tagesanzeiger’ daily in Zurich at the same time that the Church’s future was not in Europe.

“It would be good if there were candidates from Africa or South America at the next conclave,” he said, referring to the closed-door election in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel.

Asked if he would vote for a non-European over a European candidate if they were equally qualified, he responded: “Yes.”

Changes in style, not doctrine

Those two interviews took place at a time when there was no speculation about Benedict leaving and Church leaders may be less frank now that a conclave is looming. The fact that Benedict cited health reasons for resigning could favour younger candidates, no matter where they are from.

The attraction of a non-European candidate would be in the change of style he could provide and the focus he could direct on issues closer to Catholics in developing countries. Since all cardinals who will vote in the conclave were named by the conservative John Paul or Benedict, few would be expected to make major changes on issues such as artificial birth control, homosexuality or a wider role for women in the Church.

If it now really is Latin America’s turn, the leading candidates there seem to be Odilo Scherer, archbishop of the huge diocese of Sao Paulo, or the Italian-Argentine Leonardo Sandri, now heading the Vatican department for Eastern Churches.

Scherer, a Brazilian of German origin, ranks as a moderate because he both denounced the political activism of Latin America’s “liberation theology” but retained its broader social concern about poverty and injustice. A moral conservative, he has campaigned against abortion even in cases of rape or when the woman’s life is at risk. He has also blamed the government’s safe-sex condom distribution programme for sexual promiscuity and unwanted pregnancies.  He is just as firm against homosexuality.

Sandri, a career diplomat, doesn’t have a long paper trail on hot button issues that were not part of his brief, but he could hardly have reached such a senior position at the Vatican without being in line with Church orthodoxy.

Perhaps his best known public statement was the announcement of Pope John Paul’s death in 2005 when he held the Vatican’s third highest post as chief of staff in the Secretariat of State. Another contender is Joao Braz de Aviz, 65, from Brazil, who brought fresh air to the Vatican department for religious congregations when he took over in 2011. He supports the preference for the poor in Latin America’s liberation theology, but not the excesses of its advocates. Possible drawbacks include his low profile.