Walter Kish

Several weeks from now, Pope John Paul II will be visiting Canada to take part in the Catholic Church’s World Youth Day event being held in Toronto. Considering the obvious frail state of his health for the past several years, this is a testament to both his determination and the importance he attaches to this gathering of the world’s Catholic youth.

Nonetheless, there has been much talk of late as to how much longer this remarkable pope can continue to lead the world’s best organized and most influential religion. Whether he chooses to retire in the near future, or leaves in the more traditional fashion, people both inside and outside the Church are already speculating as to whom his successor might be.

Choosing a pope is a secretive process the ultimate outcome of which has often astounded and confounded the experts and the prognosticators. When in 1978 the senior cardinal deacon appeared on the balcony of St Peter’s basilica to announce that Karol Wojtyla had been selected, the reaction of most people was “Who?”.

In choosing John Paul II’s successor, the current college of cardinals will no doubt be considering his ability to handle a number of key issues that confront the Catholic Church today. Foremost of these is the perennial conflict between the traditionalists who emphasize doctrine, discipline and a strong, centralized papacy, and the reformists who feel that the church must change with the times and be more collegial and decentralized in the way it is run. This has spawned considerable debate over such thorny questions as allowing married clergy, the role of women in the church, the legitimacy of divorce and birth control, the involvement of the clergy in social and political movements, and the decentralization of power from the Roman curia to local bishops.

Another important factor is the recognition that the majority of the world’s Catholics come from Third World countries. With the last conclave, it became evident that the papacy was no longer the monopoly of the Italians or other major European powers. The message was clear that nationality was no longer the determining factor it had been in the past.

Lastly, ecumenism, or the movement to develop a rapprochement and possibly eventually re-unify the world’s major Christian faiths, has gained considerable ground in this century and there is a strong desire to push this agenda aggressively forward, despite the reactionary objections of some cardinals that insist on the absolute primacy of Catholicism and strict adherence to its dogma.

The new pope will be expected to guide the church through this thorny minefield of issues on which a more educated and demanding laity are pushing for progress. It is obvious that the church is becoming increasingly polarized, and past history has shown that when faced with polarization, the cardinals have typically opted for “compromise” candidates that don’t lean too strongly in one direction or the other.

In the current speculation over who will be the next pope, one of the surprising names that crops up is Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, current head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. In his recent authoritative book Conclave – The Politics, Personalities, and Process of the Next Papal Election, John Allen, a Vatican expert, named Husar as a strong contender.

His reasons are illuminating. Husar bridges the political and economical divide. Having been born in Ukraine, he is representative of the aspirations and hopes of the Third World. Yet, having been educated and having lived a significant amount of time in the United States, he understands and is comfortable with the values and processes of the Western world. As an Eastern Catholic patriarch, he is more attuned to the need for more localized, decentralized power within the church, and would obviously be more sympathetic towards the re-examination of the church’s stand on such issues as having a married clergy. Having lived many years in Italy he is fluent in Italian, which would be an advantage in dealing with the Vatican bureaucracy, yet he is equally at ease in English, which has become the common denominator language of the western world. He is said to be articulate and have a sharp grasp of both theology as well as secular politics. Though a strong supporter of Catholic fundamentals, he has proven to be flexible and moderate on many issues. In sum, he just may be the right “compromise” candidate to emerge from the next conclave with the papal crown.