A Chance Meeting

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A Chance Meeting

[2009-10-22]

[Engleză]

An ordinary Wednesday in Rome

By Robert Moynihan, reporting from Rome

====================================

Midnight Oil

The Pope's light was burning late tonight.

In fact, in all the years of his pontificate, since the spring of 2005 after his election, his custom has been to keep his light on until about 11 pm. Then the window goes dark. Sometimes it is a little before 11, sometimes a little after.

But this evening, it was still burning at 11:15, at 11:30, at 11:45, and at 12 midnight. I don't know if it was on any longer, because midnight was when I glanced up at the Apostolic Palace for the last time before calling it a day myself and heading back here to write. The light was still on as I turned and walked away.

Is the Pope working late?

Or did someone forget to turn off the light?

I don't know -- I only know that the light stayed on much longer than usual.

=====================================

The Next Pope?

This evening I was invited to dine, along with a dozen other journalists, with Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, 61, the Archbishop of Cape Coast in Ghana, in West Africa.

Turkson is not just any cardinal.

He is the youngest African cardinal.

And, as the 'Relator,' or General Secretary, of the Synod on Africa currently taking place in Rome, he is unquestionably one of the 'top' African cardinals (as he is often termed in the press).

Indeed, some have gone so far as to speculate that Turkson may become... the first African Pope. (See: http://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/otn.cfm?id=506)

At an October 5 press conference to open the Synod, Turkson was asked whether he thought the time was right for a black Pope, particularly following the election of President Barack Obama.

Turkson replied: 'Why not?'

He argued that every man who agrees to be ordained a priest has to be willing to be a Pope.

He noted that, with Obama and the previous U.N. secretary-general, Kofi Annan, there have been several blacks in positions of global leadership.

He said, 'If God would wish to see a black man also as Pope, thanks be to God.'

And his words put him in the headlines around the world.

======================================

'He is my brother'

It was a beautiful, warm October evening as I walked up the cobblestones, past the Synod Hall, for our 7:30 pm dinner appointment inside the Vatican.

Next to me was my friend, Jesus Colina, the founder of the Zenit news agency. About nine other journalists were walking with us.

We reached a Vatican security checkpoint inside Vatican City (there are several of these). The guards checked our names on a list they had received the day before, and we were free to continue toward Casa Santa Marta, but we stood for a moment, waiting for two more journalists who were late.

An African prelate walked by, dressed very simply. From his clothes, he could have been an ordinary monsignor. But something about his greying hair and the shape of his head...

Jesus nudged me as the man walked by.

'I think that's him,' he said to me.

'Who?'

'Cardinal Turkson...'

I hadn't seen him well because he had walked past the far side of our little group, and now all I could see was the back of his head.

'What?' I asked. 'You think so?'

'I think so,' he said.

'Come one,' I said.

So, while the other journalists waited at the checkpoint, we hastened after the African cardinal.

'Your Eminence...' I called out, from about 20 feet behind him. He turned and looked at us both quizzically.

'Yes?'

'Are you... Cardinal Turkson?'

A moment of silence.

'He is my brother.'

And then he laughed and indicated that we should come up to him and walk along with him the rest of the way.

It was Turkson.

====================================

Roman Rumors

The dinner in Casa Santa Marta, where many of the Synod cardinals are staying -- and where the cardinals reside in the case of a papal conclave, going back and forth from here to the Sistine Chapel -- was delightful.

I sat just next to him on his right.

Turkson, a scripture scholar by training, was friendly, frank, thoughtful, and he didn't duck any questions -- except one, which Robert Mickens of the London Tablet asked: whether he would accept a post in Rome, in the Curia, if the Pope were to offer one to him.

Why that question?

Because there are rumors here that the Pope may soon call Turkson to Rome to succeed the retiring Italian Cardinal Renato Martino, 77, as the head of the Council for Justice and Peace.

For this reason, at the end of the evening, some of the Italian journalists, as they said their farewells to the cardinal, smiled and winked and said, 'See you again soon...'

The veteran Vatican journalist John Allen has given some insight into the situation.

'The hold-up is apparently due to Turkson himself, who’s made it known that he doesn’t want the job, preferring to focus on his pastoral obligations in Ghana. Nonetheless, it’s more or less taken for granted, both in Africa and in Vatican circles, that Turkson will wind up in Rome.' (Source: http://ncronline.org/news/people/ghanaian-cardinal-destined-be-ecclesiastical-star)

(Note: Some still believe the Pope may choose instead, as Martino's replacement, the African Archbishop Robert Sarah, 64, of Guinea, who since 2001 has been the Secretary of Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, the former Propaganda Fide.)

Turkson seemed reluctant to answer at first, and the question had to be repeated.

Then, prompted just a bit by an official of the Press Office, who attended the dinner, Turkson responded: 'I would respond just as I responded to the Pope's request that I become a bishop, and then a cardinal: I would obey, and accept.'

Our conversation was wide-ranging.

We learned about Turkson's family -- his father was a Catholic, his mother a Methodist who became a Catholic after marriage. He is the fourth of 10 children, and he now has 30 nephews and nieces, the children of eight of his brothers and sisters (one brother died in a plane crash some years ago).

He said that one of his sisters has married a Methodist and become a Methodist -- as if in compensation for his mother's leaving Methodism when she married his father.

We learned about his African name.

'My name is Monday,' he told us. 'Kodwo -- that means 'Monday' in my native language. It is our tradition to name each child by the day of the week he or she is born on. I was born on a Monday, so that is my first name, Kodwo. Peter was added later...'

A journalist asked how this could be. With 10 children in the family, how could they all be named with the days of the week, since there are only seven days...?

'There are two Fridays in my family,' Turkson replied, laughing. 'And three Sundays. I am the only Monday.'

We all laughed.

Turkson expressed some concern about the rapid increase of Islam in Africa, often by means of questionable methods.

'Sometimes a person will take out a loan, and the person will have difficult paying it back, and the loan will be forgiven on one condition -- that the person converts to Islam,' Turkson said. 'There is definitely a strategy to increase the Muslim population in Ghana, and throughout Africa.'

When a journalist asked him what was one change he would make in the Church, he said: 'More attention to priestly formation.'

He said he has ordained about 35 priests in recent years from his diocese, and that he allows each priest to take a 'sabbatical year' after finishing his studies, but before ordination.

'We don't follow them everywhere,' he told us. 'But we do observe their lives from a distance. If a man says he wishes to be a priest and then during that year he stops attending Sunday Mass, then we have a question about the depth of his vocation...'

I had the sense that Turkson has built up his diocesan clergy in such a way, under his close supervision, that it would be understandable if he were reluctant to leave his diocese -- he has built up a clerical 'team' which tight-knit and effective.

Speaking of teams, he told us that he is a great fan of Ghana's national soccer team.

When I said that Nigeria also has an excellent soccer team, he turned toward me and fixed his eyes on mine and said: 'Perhaps that is so, but Ghana beats them every time they meet!'

Turkson studied for several years in Rome, and he speaks perfect Italian (he spoke Italian during our dinner).

And, coming from Ghana, he of course speaks perfect English.

But he also speaks American -- he studied for four years in Albany, New York.

Coming from an African country near the Equator where it never, ever snows, Turkson remembers especially the upstate New York winters.

'Albany, that's the Hudson River Valley,' he said to me during dinner. 'It funnels the air right down from Canada.' He pursed his lips slightly, as if to imitate a fierce winde blowing. 'Cold!'

=======================================

Tomorrow, Turkson will prepare the final 'propositions' to put before the Synod for voting on Friday.

The Synod will then end on Saturday, and the approved propositions will go to the Pope for his evaluation and reflection.

The Pope will then prepare a pontifical document, taking into account everything the bishops have said during this Synod, and publish it in a few months.

=======================================

Genetically Modified Seeds

One thing I did not ask Turkson about was the controversial question of genetically modified seeds.

I didn't raise the issue because I wanted some other journalist to raise it, but no one did.

So I let it go, a bit reluctantly.

I had thought I might get a perspective on the issue from Turkson, the highest possible Synod source, but I let the opportunity slip away.

Why had I wanted an authoritative perspective?

Because of something that happened 10 days ago.

I haven't written anything in these newsflashes about the Synod on Africa, now nearing its close (it ends in three days, on Saturday, October 24).

Sursa: www.InsideTheVatican.com

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