The New Pope
The Catholic Church finally elected the New Pope Benedict XVI from Europe. As a Christian from the 'two-third-world', our expectation was the New Pope would be from a Latin or Afro-Asian country. By electing a Pope from Africa or Latin America, the Vatican Council could make the world understand that Christianity is not a white man's religion. The reason for electing Pope from Europe is to revive European women, marriage for priests, homosexuality and gay marriage etc. The Vatican Council's aspiration is that the Pope from Europe will salvage the European Church and Christianity from these challenges. Now, I wish that the Vatican Council's decision is genuine and their hopes and dreams would turn into reality. Pope John Paul II was also from Europe but he was only successful in dissolving the Soviet Empire.
My expectation was that a Pope from beyond the periphery of white Christianity would reduce religious tension, halve poverty, hunger, diseases and the gender issue of the 'two-third-world'. John Paul II clearly understood the need for younger leadership for the present troubled world. So, he called the younger leadership at the Vatican. But now the clock has turned back and we got a Pope who will turn 78 next Saturday.
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