Nigerian Cardinal to be next Pope?

Cardinal Francis Arinze of Nigeria, one of the top contenders to become pope next week, is best known for his interfaith experience with Muslims and his meteoric rise from a poor African village to the halls of the Vatican.
He was the youngest Catholic bishop in the world when he was consecrated Aug. 29, 1965, at 32. Today, he's a favorite of traditional Catholics because of his withering denunciations of dissent on all the hot-button topics: population control, homosexuality and pro-choice Catholic politicians.



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This man sounds like a no-nonsense kinda guy. It should be interesting, if elected, to see what his abilities to mend catholic and muslim dissention considering his Nigerian upbringing being heavely influenced by the muslim faith.

while he may be a good candidate, I think the Vatican is going to go with a European candidate, mainly Italian. I don't mean to sound so dissillusioned with the Catholic Church, but I feel that they are publicly touting and tossing around the Nigerian cardinal's name to show they have no prejudice or racism within their ranks, but when it comes down to it, I don't think we'll ever see a black pope. I hope I'm wrong though.

Italy is also claiming that this will never happen. They just elected the first ever black "Miss Italy" and many say that there is no chance they'd have a black pope too. Sounds like Italy really has their priorities right

I've met alot of Nigerians growing up. My father was a missionary there and we have had many of the people he met come to visit us in the states. It was always a great experience. The Nigerians were some of the most heartwarming and genuine people I've gotten to know growing up. It's such a violent country, it was amazing to see how uplifted these people were in spite of all the horrible things happening around them. I'm not catholic, but if I were, I'd be pulling for this guy

WIth the type of people JP2 named to be Bishops, I would be suprised if the next pope was italian. Honestly tho the selections usuaklly have been ones with rather conservative veiws, so I do not think it will happen this time.. maybe next time.