At 69, Arinze is the right age for a pope. In ceremonial appearances he flashes a winning smile and displays a self-deprecating sense of humor. Since his name first appeared on journalistic lists of papabali four years ago, Arinze has avoided reporters as a matter of policy–a sure sign that he is taking the talk of his candidacy serious-ly. But his experience at the Vatican has been limited to a single post: as president of the Pontifical Council for In-terreligious Dialogue, he has been the pope’s contact man with Muslims, principally, but also with Hindus and Buddhists. His early pastoral letters, as well as his more recent pronouncements, show Arinze to be old-fashioned in his theology, and reluctant to venture much beyond quotations from John Paul II.
Arinze averages three visits a year to the United States, yet his profile is so low that few African-Americans claim to know him. His most frequent American host is a wealthy white Catholic, Thomas Monaghan, founder of Domino’s Pizza and financial backer of conservative Catholic causes. Nonetheless, the possibility that Arinze might become the first black pope has generated considerable buzz within the nation’s small circle of elite black Catholics. “It would be a symbol that the church is colorblind,” says Dr. Norman Francis, president of Xavier University in New Orleans.
Arinze has strong competition. There are 27 Latin American cardinals, and they may well feel that the time is ripe for one of them to occupy the papal throne. What’s more, John Paul II is known to regard the churches of Africa as still rather new to the faith. But Arinze, an Ibo, has an extra cachet. The Ibos claim to be descended from the Biblical patriarch Jacob. This would make Arinze not only the first black pope, but the first to claim a Hebrew lineage as well.
