Simon Roughneen reports from Rome concerning the local Asian response to
the election of a new pope.
ROME – The day after the former
Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Jorge Bergoglio, was elected leader of the world's
estimated 1.2 billion Catholics, Ariadna Estetania Cabello Rendace stood among
a group of Argentines in St. Peter's Square and watched Bergoglio hold his
first mass as Pope Francis on video screens placed around the vast cobble-stone
piazza.
“Last night, when they announced
the new papa, we were standing over there, near the fountain,” Rendace told The
Diplomat, pointing across the square. “When he said 'Argentina,' I said 'What?
Who? I cannot believe (it).'”
Based on demographics alone,
there is clear reason to select a Pope from Latin America, home to 4 in 10 of
the world's Catholics.
By contrast, only 12 percent of
the world's Catholics live in the vast Asia-Pacific region. From this
contingent, five cardinal electors hail from India, with one each from
Australia, China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Vietnam according
to the Holy See Press Office.
Asia’s Papal Blues
As Asians welcome the new pope,
they do so with possible tinges of disappointment. Before the white smoke rose
and the announcement was made, suggestions circulated that a handful of Asian
cardinals were possible contenders.
Father Christopher Ann – a young
priest from Gwangju, South Korea, who was showing a group of Korean pilgrims
and tourists around St. Peter's Basilica, said that he hoped for an Asian Pope.
“But at the same time, it is not
so important where the Pope comes from,” Ann added. “The most important thing
is that the new father be able to stand against the materialism that is in the
world.”
Pope Francis apparently shares
the young priest's sentiment. In his first meeting with journalists on Saturday
morning, the new pope explained that he chose the name Francis after Brazil's
Cardinal Claudio Hummes congratulated him and asked him not to forget the poor.
“He hugged me and kissed me and
told me not to forget the poor, and that word went in here,” Pope Francis said,
pointing to his head, while speaking to around 3,000 journalists in the Paul VI
Hall. “I immediately thought of Francis of Assisi,” he added, referring to the
saint perhaps most closely associated with compassion for the poor.
Of Asia’s papal contenders –
Manila's Luis Antonio Tagle, Mumbai's Oswald Gracias and Colombo's Malcolm
Ranjith – the Filipino was the most touted, due to his outgoing personality and
relative youth at just 55 years old
By comparison, Poland's Karol
Józef Wojtyła (Pope John Paul II) was a mere 58 when elected to the papacy in
1978. He would go on to become the second-longest serving pontiff in the
two-millennia history of the Catholic Church.
Gollowon Allesandro Cabangcla, a
Filipino who has lived in Rome for ten years, explained he was “a little
disappointed” that his compatriot Cardinal Tagle was not elected. “Maybe he was
a bit too young still,” reckoned Cabangcla, who hopes Francis I will visit the
Philippines, following in the footsteps of John Paul II who held Mass for an
estimated four million people in Manila in 1995, the largest papal audience in
history.
A Numbers Game
Compared with Latin America,
Catholic numbers in Asia are small in relative and absolute terms. In India,
there are ten million Catholics, while in other Asian countries with
substantial Catholic populations, such as Indonesia, South Korea and Vietnam,
Catholics still make up only three, 11 and six percent of the total
populations, respectively. Overall, of the 285 million Christians in the
Asia-Pacific region, 131 million of those are Catholic. There are only two
Catholic-majority countries in Asia: the Philippines and East Timor.
In China, house church membership
in some quarters is estimated to exceed 100 million, far more than those who
have joined the 'official' state Catholic Church. Overall, around nine million
Chinese are Catholic.
Considering China's rising
economic might and given poor relations between The Holy See and Beijing, ties
with China will likely be the most pressing regional issue for Francis.
As the rain beat down on the tens
of thousands of pilgrims and onlookers awaiting the announcement of the new
pope last week, Chinese tourists were among the crowd.
Lost in Translation
One such tourist was Yu Yao, a
Chinese student in Paris who was traveling in Italy during the papal
announcement. Yu told The Diplomat that she was surprised to hear of Asian
cardinals in the running for the papacy.
“I think it would be really
interesting and attractive for us if there was an Asian leader of the church,”
she said.
But for Yu and others living in
countries and cultures that are non-Catholic, the symbolism and rituals of the
ancient institution remain shrouded in mystery.
In Japan, for example, only 1.5
percent of the population is Christian. Among them, only 400,000 are Catholic.
Jesuit missionaries briefly flourished in Japan in the 16th Century, after
which the nation entered a long period of self-imposed isolation that brought
with it religious repression.
Today it would seem that the
Catholic Church still has work to do in places like Japan where the religion is
still largely seen as an exotic faith. While touring St. Peter's the day before
the conclave, Japanese student Marika Ishibashi said that the art and history seen
in Italy's ornate churches was impressive, but “the first thing that comes to
mind when you ask me about Catholicism is the Tom Hanks movie, Angels And
Demons.”
Simon Roughneen
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