A LEGAL friend asked me recently about the
prophecies of St Malachy and that the next pope, if black, will signal
the end of the world, a contention that met with a strong rebuff from me
for resorting to such old wives' tales.However, the head of the Jesuits is known as the 'black pope' and with a Jesuit now in the chair of St Peter, sales of St Malachy's books and rumours of the world's end are sure to gain credence.
What has happened is that the lead candidates, Cardinal Scola of Milan and Cardinal Scherer of Brazil, must have cancelled each other out in the early votes.
As the saying goes, go in a pope and come out a cardinal. The compromise candidate is Argentinian, Jorge Mario Bergoglio (76), the first leader of the church ever chosen from South America.
As Pope Francis, the 266th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, is also the first non-European leader of the church in more than 1,000 years.
The name of Francis is clear.
St Francis of Assisi was the son of a rich merchant in the 1200s who gave up everything to follow Jesus Christ. He heard the voice of Christ from a cross which said "Francis, repair my church, which you see is falling down".
This Pope is a pope of gentle but steely determination, like Francis, who is setting out to repair God's church. As a Jesuit, he didn't take the name of his founder, Ignatius, but the Jesuits were the 'storm troopers' of the Counter Reformation which saved the church from the turmoil it suffered after Martin Luther and the Reformation. If Francis was a man of passion, compassion, love and sacrifice, Ignatius, the founder of the Jesuits, was a CEO par excellence.
These are the qualities many cardinals sought before the conclave. However, given his age, the new Pope is a pope for the next 10 years or so and has a task to get the church back on track. This is a papacy of repair and reform. Another papacy will be needed after to drive the church in a new direction. But it is also a papacy with a global edge.
As an Argentinian, Cardinal Bergoglio had a delicate relationship with the government there, and some say he was on a collision course with that government, and a strong defender of the role of church as an independent voice in society.
Latin
American is a continent in transition, think Cuba, Venezuela. Left-wing
dictators are popping up with anti-church agendas. This Pope is not
coming from the left or the right but as a Jesuit, he is on the side of
the poor, something neither politicians of the left or right tend to
appreciate. He may well give strength to Irish bishops who are tired of
being told by the Labour Party here to stay out of public debate.
This
Pope is going to be much more charismatic than his predecessor.
Speaking from the balcony of St Peter's he was, as the Italian's say,
very 'sympatico' – which means warm and nice, something that Benedict
didn't carry off very well. He is perhaps best described as a
combination of Pope John Paul I and John XXIII.
He
appears a genuinely humble man and hasn't sought this appointment or
politicised himself in the church.
The most interesting reaction will be
in Latin America, and while the Argentine government might try to
hijack him – visiting the Falkland Islands would be a coup for them – it
is unlikely that this Jesuit, with the compassion of St Francis, will
be anybody's fool but God's.
* Garry O'Sullivan is managing director of 'The Irish Catholic'.