Excerpt: "On a more individual level, Turkson has a compelling personal story. Born into a poor family, the son of a carpenter, he played in a funk and Afro-beat band when he was younger. To support himself as a seminary student in New York City in the nineteen-seventies, Turkson worked as a cleaner, and was almost arrested by police officers who did not believe he was supposed to be in a bank at night."
February 26, 2013
February 26, 2013
Posted by Naunihal Singh
According to the smart
money, the odds favor the election of Ghana’s Cardinal Peter Turkson as the
next Pope, the first from Africa since Pope Gelasius I over fifteen hundred
years ago. In the intervening years, several African candidates have attracted
interest (Benin’s Cardinal Gantin, in 1978, and Nigeria’s Cardinal Arinze, in
2005), but none has ever been a front-runner among the papabile. In fact, the
term “black pope” traditionally refers to the head of the Jesuits, revealing
how unlikely the prospect of an actual black pope was for most of the Church’s
history.
This time around, the
demographic argument in favor of a non-European pope is hard to ignore. In the
eight years of Benedict’s papacy alone, the number of Catholics in Africa grew
by twenty-one per cent and the number of priests by sixteen per cent. In
Europe, on the other hand, the number of Catholics has plummeted to such an
extent that it is no longer the most Catholic region in the world, both in
terms of the number of faithful and percentage of the population. The election
of Turkson by the College of Cardinals, most of whom still come from Europe,
would be clear acknowledgment that the leadership of the Church has to reflect
this shifting center of gravity. The past of the Catholic Church is in Europe,
and its future is in Africa and Asia.
For me, as a
(non-Catholic) professor teaching African politics at the University of Notre
Dame, this is an immensely teachable moment. Once, Pope Alexander VI used his
authority to help divide the world for colonial conquest. Now the Church is
considering a man for the papacy who was born a subject of the British colony
of the Gold Coast. There is a clear sense of the wheel turning around.
On a more individual
level, Turkson has a compelling personal story. Born into a poor family, the
son of a carpenter, he played in a funk and Afro-beat band when he was younger.
To support himself as a seminary student in New York City in the
nineteen-seventies, Turkson worked as a cleaner, and was almost arrested by
police officers who did not believe he was supposed to be in a bank at night.
Turkson is a natural
communicator with an informal style, doing television interviews in his black
priestly garb rather than the scarlet cassock of a cardinal. This is consistent
with his largely pastoral background, one spent dealing with the faithful rather
than the machinery of the Vatican. He is young (for a cardinal) and
technology-friendly, reportedly owning an iPod and iPad. He speaks seven
languages and likes to joke with people in their native tongues. As evidence of
his attempt to reach younger Catholics, Turkson is due to speak at the
University of Notre Dame on March 3rd. (He is not unique in this regard; his
primary rival, Cardinal Scola, had been scheduled to speak at Notre Dame last
Saturday.)
Both because of his
personality and the potential for a historic milestone, some journalists have
taken to calling this papal election an “Obama moment” for the Church. This
metaphor is apt only insofar as both will disappoint liberals hoping for
significant change. Where Obama positioned himself as a cautious reformer,
Turkson is openly conservative. He will not lessen opposition to gay marriage
or undo the directive stating that men with “deeply rooted homosexual
tendencies” should not be ordained as priests. On the contrary, Turkson has
defended anti-gay legislation in Africa and argued that “alternative
lifestyles” should not be considered human rights. When asked about the
possibility that the priestly sex scandal could spread to Africa, he replied
this was unlikely because African culture discourages homosexuality. Here
Turkson makes the conservative argument that blames gay priests, rather than
celibacy or a lack of institutional safeguards, for the sexual abuse of
children by the clergy. In doing so he ignores not only the results of a United
States Bishops’ investigation, which found no support for this position, but
also serious reports of African nuns being sexually abused by priests as well.
Similarly, there is no
reason to expect shifts on abortion, birth control, or the ordination of women
should Turkson become Pope. He does not deviate from the party line even on
topics where a variety of positions are theologically permissible, such as the
end of clerical celibacy. These views should not come as a surprise, however.
All of the current cardinals were selected by the last two Popes, and so share
a common conservative outlook and support for the status quo.
Although Turkson is
unlikely to spearhead significant doctrinal change in the Church, his selection
would change the style of the papacy. Where Pope Benedict is scholarly,
elderly, and aloof, Turkson is younger and more plainspoken, although still a
Biblical scholar in his own right. He will likely travel around the world
evangelizing vigorously, perhaps resuming the large stadium masses characteristic
of a younger Pope John Paul II. To better reach his audience, he may
communicate less in Latin (although the papal Twitter account is unlikely to
change), and make greater use of local languages.
In speaking to the world
he is likely to emphasize issues of economic justice, a topic that plays well
in developing countries. Last year, he gained attention for being the top
signatory on a document criticizing neoliberal economic policies and calling
for a “true world political authority” to regulate the global economy. It would
be a mistake, however, to read him as a social progressive. Only in America do
Catholic conservatives embrace Ayn Rand; elsewhere they tend to follow Pope
John Paul II, who was staunchly critical of what he saw as the shortcomings of
capitalism.
He will likely make an
incremental change to the official policy on condoms, having indicated a
willingness to consider the use of condoms to save lives (not for
contraception) within married couples if one partner is H.I.V.-positive. This
is consistent with Pope Benedict’s position that condoms are permissible to
prevent disease, but it is not a position that the Church has taken yet.
Turkson has positioned
himself as an ecumenical figure, making reference to his Methodist mother and Muslim
uncle. He will continue the Catholic dialogue with other Christian dominations,
and, if Uganda’s John Sentamu becomes the Archbishop of Canterbury, this will
at least produce some nice photo opportunities. I expect he would also make
symbolic gestures to Muslims and Jews. It will be difficult to improve
relations with Islamic countries, already damaged by a speech Benedict gave in
Regensburg, and Turkson may face additional obstacles of his own making. He has
claimed that theological dialogue with the Islamic world is impossible and
caused offense by showing an anti-Islamic YouTube video at an official
gathering. It is worth noting that he may be the first cardinal to get into
trouble for infelicitous use of YouTube—itself a notable achievement.
Should he become Pope,
Turkson will also face other serious challenges, ones with the potential to
define his legacy more than the issues already discussed. It is not clear if
the current strategy of ignoring sex-abuse scandals is tenable, especially if
national governments become more aggressive about investigating and indicting
church officials. Closer to home, the next Pope will have to reform the Vatican
bank, an institution which has been wracked with scandal since the
nineteen-eighties. The fact that Turkson is an outsider to this mess may prove
an asset or a hindrance, but either way it will prove no small problem. Whether
one believes the most sensational reports of Vatican intrigue or not, it is
clear that the bureaucracy will need to be reined in.
In some ways, his
biggest challenge may be that of South-South relations. If Europe is the
Church’s past and Africa its future, then Latin America is its present. A
demographic argument should lead to a Latin American Pope, since the region is
home to over forty per cent of all Catholics, more than any other area in the
world. It is rumored that Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, of Argentina,
finished second to Cardinal Ratzinger in 2005, and it may cause problems if
Latin America is passed over a second time. While the Church remains strong in
Latin America, it faces increasing competition from evangelical movements on
the one side and increased secularism on the other. It also has scandals of its
own to deal with, including the legacy of the late Father Marcial Maciel, the
charismatic founder of the Legionaries of Christ who not only fathered children
but has been accused of raping them as well. If these are not handled well,
they could damage the Church’s reputation in the region, as has already
happened in Europe.
As of now, this is all
speculation. There are other strong candidates for the job: Italy’s Cardinal
Scola runs a close second to Turkson in papal betting, and of course the
cardinals may decide to ignore demographic arguments yet once more. In 2010, Cardinal
Turkson said, “I wouldn’t want to be… [the] first black pope. I think he’ll
have a rough time.” For this he was considered unambitious. Two years later,
his critics now say the opposite, that he is too eager to get the job, and
therefore insufficiently modest to deserve it. When a puff of white smoke comes
out of the Sistine Chapel chimney, the world will learn if the cardinals see a
black pope as the future of the Catholic Church.
Naunihal Singh is an
assistant professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame.
Photograph: Gabriel
Bouys/Getty.
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