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4.15.2005
Primary Colors The US Congress creeps toward total sideshow, with Tom DeLay’s past finally catching up to him and Bill Frist inching toward changing the Senate rules on filibusters. But don’t ask John Q. Citizen about any of this, all he knows is that he’s never seen gas prices so high. So while wheels continue to spin, the other big event gets set for Monday in Rome. You know, that Papal Conclave thing. And the front-runner for the next Father of the Roman Catholic Church is Francis Arinze. Born in Nigeria, the Vatican is already cognizant that his dark skin might help the faith’s profile. But that’s not why Arinze is popular. He’s popular because what he is (African) gives the appearance that change is afoot but who is he (a resident of the Vatican state for twenty years) means that most of the changes would probably be token ones. He would not rock the boat on Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae (which famously ruled out any sanctioned use of contraceptive pills). He’s the Colin Powell of the Catholic Church. But if Arinze becomes Pope, he would join Kofi Annan as another West African in control of a major (and in theory peerless) world organization. And does this mean anything? In the sense that both men have dark skin, no. But that they both hale from the most fragile and unstable continent on Earth, yes. It proves that even after all the oppression and environment destruction Africa has seen, the potential is there for rebirth. And it also proves that Africans are able to lead. And does a black Pope presage better luck tomorrow for other people of African descent in positions of authority and overall? The Republicans love putting in token minorities. Just imagine Bush’s glee in naming Clarence Thomas Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in the same year that Arinze became pope. Or how about the year an African country wins the World Cup? After how painful this month has been privately for the conservatives, that might bring a smirk back to Bush’s face. |
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