Next pope from South America?

Bishop Tomas A. Camacho of the Diocese of Chalan Kanoa said he has a strong feeling that the next pope would come from South America.

In an interview with the Saipan Tribune, Camacho said he believes in his conjecture that the cardinals are going to elect someone from the Third World and will most likely select a bishop from South America. He said there are several capable cardinals from that part of the world.

He said the cardinals would pick the successor of the late Pope John Paul II to address problems in third world countries, which incidentally is where majority of the Catholic faithful lives.

Camacho said having a South American pope this is not impossible. If we could recall, he said, the late Pope John Paul II came from Poland, a communist country, a Warsaw Pact country in particular. “And he took care of communism,” said the bishop.

The pope was a perfect person to handle it then, said Camacho. Now somebody from South America would be able to address poverty, which is the biggest problem in the continent as well as the rest of the Third World. He said hopefully with the power of the papacy, poverty and political corruption there would be given attention and eventually solved.

Camacho said the next pope must have charisma and his own agenda. He also said that he would definitely not be like Pope John Paul II.

“We could not expect someone who would just follow in his [Pope John Paul II] footsteps,” he said, noting that each individual is different so the next pope would have his own uniqueness.

The bishop said that, on the ninth day of mourning, which falls on a Monday, the cardinals would lock themselves in a meeting at the Vatican called the conclave. They would first discuss the conditions of the Catholic Church and the different problems that the Church is encountering.

Camacho said that is how the Church normally does the conclave. “But of course it’s a secret. We don’t know actually what’s going on,” said Camacho.

He said they would not know whom they would vote for. But he said the elected cardinal does not have to accept the election. Somebody could refuse the election and could say that they elect somebody else instead, said Camacho.

The secrecy of the election is to protect the individual. He said what happens in there would remain exclusive in the meeting, which could last at least three days until they elect the next pope, said Camacho.

For the bishop, the main issue that the new pope should address is the same issue that the past pontiffs always wanted to resolve within the Catholic communities around the world, which is to practice their religion, said Camacho.

“John Paul II, has been drawing to get the Catholics to practice their religion,” he said.