Will the next pontiff be from Africa?

If the only predictor of the next Pope will be the place where the Catholic Church grows faster, it is almost certain that it will be built from Africa.

The Catholic population expands on the continent more quickly than anywhere, and represents more than half of the global increase.

While there are at least three Pontif from Africa, Pope Gilassius I – died more than 1500 years ago – may argue that the time has come to another.

When the Cardinals who vote in favor of the leader of the Roman Catholic Church – known as the Cardinal – Al -Anqudal – meet in the Vatican to choose the successor of Pope Francis, will these facts affect the decision -making?

Father Stan Chu Elelo, Nigerian Catholic priest and associate professor at the University of Debol in Chicago, said, “

But the cleric admitted that it is more likely that the Cardinate chose someone who is already a prominent – “someone is already an influential voice.”

“The challenge is that you have no big African clergy who occupy any important position today in the Vatican, and this is a problem,” he said.

“If you are thinking about the African Cardinals who are potential popes, who are prominent in global Catholicism today? The answer is not.”

He said that in contrast to 2013 when Cardinal Peter Trikson was a strong competitor to this position and 2005 when Cardinal Francis Arins Nigerian was a potential candidate in the scope that led to the election of Pope Benedict XVI.

This is although Pope Francis increases the percentage of Cardinals from sub -Saharan Africa from 8 % when he was elected in 2013 to 12 % after a decade, according to the Pew Research Center in the United States.

Father Zhou Eleu said: “How did it come to this point for the continent of Africa and the Catholic Church still is to surprise many of us, given that Pope Francis is open to Africa.”

Francis visited 10 countries in Africa during Bontteretter – a time that represents a huge increase in Catholics on the continent. They now make up 20 % of the global group, with the latest numbers that show how it rises from 272 million in 2022 to 281 million in 2023.

But some African Catholics do not like this focus on the original – like Father Bolinos Exoko Odouzur, a professor at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.

For the Nigerian -born Catholic priest, it is just a slap from the distinctive symbol.

He told me: “It seems as if people say,” well, so Africans grow in these numbers, so why do we not give them the Pope. “

“I never thought that you just came from Africa, or because you came from Europe, and therefore you are a major candidate.

“Regardless of the whereabouts from which you come, as soon as you are involved, everyone’s issues become your problem. You have one source of concern, to build the body of Christ, regardless of where people are, regardless of their number, in any context they are.”

The most important thing, he told BBC, is that the Pope is the “main theologian of the church”.

“The Pope should be a person who knows the tradition well,” he said and was able to use this to give people to.

In his opinion, more should be done to ensure that things that affect believers in Africa are taken seriously by those in power positions in the Vatican.

He admitted that sometimes I felt “as if the Africans did not care, or it seems as if their faith is considered a little less than equality, or fake, and it should not be taken seriously.”

“When Africans feel that their issues are not on the table as it should, people start the question, well, perhaps we can hear ourselves or see only if we have our legs there.”

Pope Francis was praised for his understanding of the poor and the marginalized – which made him particularly loved in Africa.

For example, he spoke against what he considered the looting of natural resources in places such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a vast country that includes the largest Catholic community in Africa with approximately 55 million believers.

It was also praised as a peacemaker – he went to the extreme to heal the divisions in the wake of the brutal civil war in the Central African Republic, where he was famous for his riding on the imam who invited him to pray in a mosque in Bangui in 2015 and kiss the feet of South Sudan leaders after four years.

But Pope Francis faced a violent reaction from the African Church to his position on gay issues.

African bishops rejected its announcement of 2023, which allowed the priests to provide blessings to couples of the same sex.

The Vatican explained that the blessings “do not agree or justify the situation in which these people find themselves”, and that “in many countries there are strong and even legal cultural issues that require time and pastoral strategies that exceed the short term.”

It is an issue that seems to unite the continent, as homosexual sexual relations are banned in many countries.

The three African Cardinals, which the observers mentioned as possible, if not from the summit, the competitors – Turkson, Robert Sarah from Guinea and Dr. Kongo Friedolin Ambongo Bisongo – are all clear in their refusal to change in this case.

“Unions of the same sex are contradictory to cultural norms and evil in essence,” said Congolese Cardinal.

The Cardinal Sarah, who is a traditional arc, emerged in the liberal positions of the West, and she told the Synod in 2015: “Nazi fascism and communism in the twentieth century were gay ideologies, western abortion and Islamic fanaticism today.”

While Turkson criticized Ghana’s move to impose harsh penalties on gay people, the toes that are gay relations are “wrongly wrong”.

However, Father Odouzur agreed that despite the increase in the number of Cardinals from the African continent, they lack the true power in the church.

Both the BBC clerics referred to an issue that may hinder the efforts made by Pope Francis to make the church leadership more representative – and the possibility of obtaining a back from Africa.

“There is still a question about racism in the church we have never talked about,” said Father Odouzor.

“This may undermine a person, regardless of how the papacy or what he does, will be seen simply as the African Pope.”

When Pope Francis 108 out of 135 qualified Cardinals to vote in the flavor, there is a good chance to choose someone who is also focusing on reaching the poor and deprived.

It is an approach called FR Chu Ilo, the poor “Outlook”, with a focus on the “Listen Church”.

However, as Pope Francis was elected, he said the result will be unexpected.

“I will answer like a good priest,” he told me a muffled laugh, when he asked his prediction.

“I would like to pray that God will give us the Pope who will continue in the view of Francis, and I will pray that such a person comes from Africa.”