By means of the decision to elect a non-European, the Catholic Church has clearly accepted and given prominence to the fact that the center of gravity of world Christianity has shifted to the global south. Although popes from Poland and Germany were already a step away from Italy, the new step is away from Europe nearly entirely, to the regions where the masses of Christians live. “Nearly”, because the Pope is of Italian decent and earned his theological doctorate in Germany.
It is astonishing that a “bishop of the poor” has been selected, who as a Jesuit would have been expected to be a closet liberal among the cardinals but by means of the selection of his papal name has indicated that his vow of poverty has programmatic significance. At the Catholic synod meetings last year I got to know him as a modest, humble, and friendly man who uses public transportation and goes without a palace or chauffeur. Even before the conclave he lived in a very modest place for priests in Rome, where I have stayed overnight, too, in spite of a better hotel. These are difficult times for all those in the Curia who have tolerated dirty church finances.
We have to expect that the new Pope, perhaps along with Cardinal Turkson from Ghana, who leads the Vatican Commission “Justitia et Pax” (Justice and Peace), will get more strongly involved in social questions. I expect a closer cooperation with evangelicals here.
The election of a relatively old man, who is only a little younger than Cardinal Ratzinger was at the time of his election, may mean that he is a transitional figure, though he seems to be healthier than Benedict XVI was at the time of his election. But – God willing – he has a decade to solve the ongoing problems in the curia itself.
It must have been self-consciously that a pope who never lived in the Vatican was elected. He his been involved in several high ranking parts of the curia, but none, that made him part of the establishment. This will make resolution of the problems of the Curia both easier and more difficult. One will have to wait eagerly for the selection of his Secretary of State and whether the chosen is willing to clean up the problems left over by Benedikt who felt to old, to the cleaning himself.
We hope that the new Pope will have a greater understanding of evangelicals, since they come so predominantly from the global south. There have been some tensions between evangelicals and Catholics in Latin America, but in Argentina the new Pope has neither been known as someone who concentrates on the needed theological discussions, but does not describe evangelicals as “sectarian.” As an archbishop he spoke at evangelical meetings and saw a commonality between al Christians in opposition to secularism. We can hope for the continuation of truly fair and honest theological discussions of both our differences and commonalities. Some questions will get a bit more difficult compared to Pope Benedikt. Eg coming from Latin America Mary will play a much greater role than under Benedikt. One will have to wait, where the debate over his time under Argentinian dictatorship goes, which the secular media surely will pump up. But having a pope, who does not see evangelicals as a problem first of all, but as a partner in preaching Jesus, is good news for us.
As I accompany our Secretary General Geoff Tunnicliffe to the Pope’s inauguration, we probably very soon will know, what direction will be taken. And I trust from experience, that our CEO takes the lead to a warm relationship of the three large Christian world bodies on the one side and a clear, direct, fair and open minded theological stand for evangelical distinctive on the other side.