Papal Conclave: I Elect as Supreme Pontiff.........

Papal conclave: I elect as supreme pontiff ...

The Guardian (UK).   [Editorial].      12/03/2013.            

Wanted, leader of troubled global institution. Must have brilliant communication skills, be theologically sound and armed with the courage to tackle a chaotic and possibly corrupt central administration. Jesus with an MBA, one wag suggested. It is how the challenges facing the Roman Catholic church are ranked that will decide who's chosen. Everywhere except Africa congregations are static or in decline. But it is mainly in Europe and the US that this existential threat is linked to the Vatican's blind squandering of its moral authority.

There have been too few priests since long before there were too many scandals. But a reluctance to address the terrible legacy of clerical abuse is matched by a reluctance to address the question of celibacy, the ordination of women and the role of the laity. Small surprise that no clear favourite has emerged from the days of preliminary conversation that end in the Sistine chapel today as the 115 cardinals go into lockdown. It could take a long time for the white smoke to emerge.

The immediate priority is to make a reality of Pope Benedict XVI's commitment to a zero tolerance policy towards any abuse of children. But Vatican thinking is still struggling to shake off the theology of the individual relationship between priest and God that has allowed it to ignore so disastrously the terrible damage inflicted and the obligation to protect the injured first. Only last month, Scottish priests were so devastated at the lack of official reaction to their allegations of inappropriate behaviour against Cardinal Keith O'Brien that they felt obliged to go public. The past weeks of debate in Rome have been clouded by the reluctance of all cardinals alleged to have a record of covering up abuse to withdraw from the process of electing the new pope. With Italian newspapers hinting that Pope Benedict might have been forced from office by fear of scandal, cleaning out the Curia must go in tandem with the transparency that's needed to complete the clean-up of the clergy.

Unlike the church it represents, the largest group on the 115-strong college of cardinals is old and Italian. But few want another old pope like Pope Benedict, 77 when he was elected eight years ago, and another short papacy. Rather, they want the right man in to see reforms through. But there's no point in sorting out the back office if the chief executive can't sell the product. Enter the charismatic 55-year-old polyglot bishop of Manila, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle (128,000 likes on Facebook); those who fear at his age he might be pope for just too long prefer the 68-year-old archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schonborn (not on Facebook). The choice the cardinals make may not change much for today's faithful. But it needs to change almost everything for the future.