African pope would be 'great honour'
2013-03-12 12:33
Video
2013-03-12 09:22
Just a few metres away from the Sistine Chapel the newly elected Pope will wear his Papal white vestment for the first time. Watch as final preparations are being made at the Vatican. WATCH
Lunga Biyela, The Witness
Durban - What name would Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of Durban
choose if he were to be elected the next pope to lead the Catholic Church?
The cardinal laughed off The Witness’s question on Monday, saying
he would not get into it.
“People have been saying, ‘Well you trained in Ireland, so
you should take the name of Saint Patrick’, while others have been saying,
‘You’re a Franciscan and should take the name of Saint Francis’. But, I’m not
getting into that now,” he said.
Pope John Paul II appointed Napier cardinal for the Church
of Saint Francis of Assisi in Acilia in Rome in 2001.
On Sunday, he spent the day with the parish at the Italian church.
“We had a lovely celebration. After Mass, we had lunch with
the parish. It was lovely.”
Pope from Africa
Speculation in the media has been rife that Cardinal Peter
Turkson of Ghana would emerge from the papal conclave as the new pope.
Napier believes it would be a “great honour” if the next
pope were to be from Africa.
“The status of the church in Africa would certainly go up by
one or two notches,” he said.
“Right now we have no indication on who the next pope will
be.
“What a lot of people are doing is going with what they hear
in the newspapers on who the frontrunners are.”
On Tuesday afternoon, the cardinals will proceed to the
Sistine Chapel where the conclave to elect a successor to Pope Benedict XVI
will begin.
“At that moment, we will still have no idea of telling how
long the conclave will last, but I can tell you that it will certainly be
longer than the last one,” said Cardinal Napier.
The last conclave, in which Pope Benedict XVI 0- then
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger - was elected, took two days to reach conclusion
after just four ballots.
If Cardinal Napier is elected as Benedict’s successor, he
will be lost to South Africa and KwaZulu-Natal.
“Once a pope is elected, they go into the Vatican the next
day.
“There is no returning home,” Napier said.
