Non-European Pope reflects Catholicism’s southward shift

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak rejects “disengagement” by the Royal Army of the Sultanate of Sulu. He prefers to wipe out the 235 encircled Tausugs in Sabah. It is to his political advantage to play national hero, as mandatory elections draw near for a new parliament.

The Malaysian media, largely government-controlled, ascribe atrocities to Sultan Jamalul Kiram III’s forces. Supposedly the intruders drew first blood by ambushing two Sabah cops in Lahad Datu. Cohorts allegedly beheaded and mutilated the bodies of six captured policemen in Semporna, two-and-a-half hours’ drive away. Downplayed are purported abuses against Tausugs residing in Sabah.

Before the Sultanate’s misadventure, Najib was teetering on the brink. Successive exposés have linked him and close associates to scams. Investigations are ongoing in France of his kickbacks from submarine purchases and the subsequent murder of a Mongolian socialite. Washington is in uproar over his bribery of news outlets, ranging from Huffington Post to National Review, to praise his administration. Hong Kong authorities, after arresting a money launderer of Najib’s ally, Sabah chief minister Musa Aman, traced millions of dollars to their ruling party. The revelations triggered parallel investigations of secret deposits in Singapore, Australia, Switzerland, and the British Virgin Islands. Najib, predecessor Mahathir Mohamad, and Musa also were found to have issued instant naturalization to more than 600,000 Filipino and Indonesian Muslim migrants to Sabah. Musa’s kin, Attorney General Gani Patail, suppressed any criminal prosecution.

Meanwhile, Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim’s stock rose. Weeks ago the father of his false accuser of sodomy publicly apologized for the misdeed. Anwar also tied Najib to Musa’s kin Manuel Amalilio, who swindled 15,000 Filipinos, mostly Muslims, then fled to Sabah. Musa’s brother, Foreign Minister Anifah Aman, helped to avert Amalilio’s deportation to the Philippines.

The Sabah “invasion” is Najib’s unique chance to cut down Anwar. The latter had just left Sabah, where he talked of possible autonomy, when Sultan Jamalul’s “army” landed. A foreign wire agency quoted an unnamed Philippine general as saying that Anwar is a friend of Kiram and political supporter Nur Misuari, both vocal about claiming Sabah. This emboldens Najib to retaliate by implicating Anwar to the Tausug intrusion. Minister Anifah was on television the other night requesting Manila for proof to put Anwar behind bars. And then Najib finally and confidently call for elections.

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Vatican watchers were on the money, forecasting the next Pope to not be Italian or even European. Catholicism for two decades now has been growing faster in the southern hemisphere — Latin America, Africa, Asia. The 115 cardinal electors took that cue, hailing from Argentina the new Pontiff.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio — now Francis I — is the first Latin American Pope, and the first non-European in 1,500 years. Although his father was Italian, he was born, raised, and worked in Argentina.

At 76, he was in Vaticanologists’ lists of southern papabili (possible Popes) in the Conclave 2013. As archbishop of Buenos Aires, he was a cardinal-priest, coming from a major archdiocese. (The rank is higher than cardinal-deacon or newly elevated to the College of Cardinals, and lower than cardinal-bishop, a member of the Curia or Papal Court.) He had also been nominated for the Papacy in 2005, when a second successive non-Italian Pope was elected.

For a spiritual leader, Bergoglio has a very physical background. Before entering the seminary, he graduated as a chemical engineer. He taught literature and psychology in Buenos Aires. Among several books he has written are Meditations for Religious and Reflections of Hope.

Ordained a priest at 33 in 1969, he became bishop of Auca in 1992, archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1997, and cardinal in 2001. As archbishop he was a member of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, and as cardinal also of the Pontifical Council for the Family. He headed the Bishops Conference of Argentina for six years to 2011.

Colleagues say Bergoglio is so unlike the jolly Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York or telegenic Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila. Introverted, he is a man of few words. This showed Wednesday when he shyly waved from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome at the crowd of 50,000 cheerers. He looked stunned, according to reports.

Bergoglio is the first Jesuit to become Pope. It will be recalled that members of the Society of Jesus had propagated Liberation Theology in Latin America. The ’60s and ’70s witnessed the preaching of Christ in the sufferings of the poor and resistance to unjust oligarchies.

Bergoglio is also the first Pope to take on the name Francis. Analysts say this adverts to the charity and humility of St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226), who forsook family wealth to found a priestly order. Also, to St. Francis Xavier (1506-1552), a nobleman among the first seven Jesuit missionary-educators to spread the faith to South and East Asia.

The name a newly elected Pope assumes signals his Pontifical direction. John XXIII (Giuseppe Roncalli) in 1958 followed a long line named after both the Baptist and the Evangelist, to initiate the Second Vatican Council. Paul VI (Giovanni Montini) in 1963 took off from the Christian converter. John Paul I (Albino Luciani, 1978) and John Paul II (Karol Wojtyla, 1978) sought to renew their direct predecessors’ Pontificates. Benedict XVI (Josef Ratzinger) in 2005 emulated Benedict XV of the First World War and St. Benedict of the monastic order.

Nearly 700 million, 58 percent of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics are in Latin America, Africa-Middle East, and Asia-Oceania. Realizing the trend early, John Paul II and Benedict XVI had appointed more cardinals from those regions than Europe and North America. Many of the cardinals have reached age 80, though, and so were ineligible to vote for a new Pope. Of the 115 electors, 74 were from Europe and North America, and 42 were from the southern hemisphere.

Still, the cardinals went for a non-European and non-North American, and non-Curia hierarch. Francis I’s election was billed as “Romans versus Reformers”, that is, cardinals in Rome against those in dioceses who sought changes in the governing ways of the Holy See.

Expect Francis I to continue naming more cardinals from the southern half of the globe.

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