Who Will Be The Next Pope?

Who will be the next Pope? It will be Angelo Scola, the Archbishop of Milan--yes, that's right, you heard it here folks! With every Papal departure, the media vomits up all sorts of speculation over who the next Pope will be. They analyze the situation as if the Papacy were a worldly political position. They think in terms of who a secular American would like to see as Pope.

The talking heads are oblivious to the fact that the church is a global institution and that the church in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East faces entirely different problems than privileged Americans. Nevertheless, the media think that those areas are due for representation in the Papacy. But the church in Africa and Asia has been growing and doing just fine without one of their own as Pope, in contrast to the decline in America and Europe. I assure you, Catholics in Africa and Asia are not sitting around complaining about church teaching on artificial contraception, marriage, or the ordination of women.

Popes are not chosen on the basis of how well they have done in the areas where they came from, but on what they have done for the universal church. And today, the critical issues facing the universal church are the secularization of Europe and North America, as well as the challenge of Islam. Angelo Scola has in-depth knowledge and involvement in both areas, and Pope Benedict's appointment of Scola as Bishop of Milan can be interpreted as the positioning him as a possible successor.