New cardinal symbolizes direction of global
Catholicism
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
NCR Staff Rome
After watching 800 Hondurans scream their new cardinals name
and gyrate like teenage girls at a Ricky Martin concert, after reviewing waves
of media speculation about the possibility of a Latin American pope, those who
followed the Feb. 21 consistory in Rome found themselves asking this question
more than once:
Is Oscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga, 58, cardinal of
Tegucigalpa, Honduras, the future of the Catholic church?
To borrow a phrase from former President Clinton, it depends on
what you mean by is.
Most handicappers believe that after John Pauls long
pontificate, Rodríguez is unlikely to be elected pope. Electors are
expected to lean to an older man.
But in the sense that Rodríguez symbolizes the direction
global Catholicism is heading -- Third World, multilingual, multicultural, more
invested in social concerns than doctrinal debates -- he may well be the face
of the future.
To the delight of crowds at the Feb. 21 consistory, it is a face
with a prodigious capacity to smile.
Rodríguez is emblematic of a coming Latino boom
in the College of Cardinals. Of 135 cardinals under 80 and thus eligible to
elect the next pope, 27, or 20 percent, are Latin Americans. Among the 23
cardinals 65 or younger, however, eight are Latin Americans -- 35 percent. (Add
in the one Spaniard and one Portuguese, and the Latin-Iberian block
becomes 43 percent of the 65-and-under group).
The Latin flavor of the college is thus destined to grow.
On Feb. 24, Rodríguez gave five journalists an hour-long
interview that ranged from the state of Central Americas fragile
democracies to his love of piloting a plane. He learned English by reading
aviation manuals.
A Salesian priest, Rodríguez entered seminary at 16, yet
has led anything but a sheltered clerical life. He is an accomplished pianist
who also holds a degree in psychoanalysis from a secular university in Austria.
He speaks seven languages, including English.
As one of only eight cardinals under 60, Rodríguezs
theological formation occurred largely after the Second Vatican Council
(1962-65). He studied moral theology and calls Fr. Bernard Häring his
mentor.
Häring, a German Redemptorist whose emphasis on
responsible freedom as opposed to blind obedience frequently irked
Vatican authorities, taught at Romes Alphonsian Academy, where
Rodríguez studied in the early 1970s. His 1974 thesis, a study of
Pauls moral thought, breathes the air of the councils personalistic
approach. He wrote that the moral life cannot be reduced to a series of
prohibitions, but instead should be a loving response to Gods
call to the dignity, the nobility, the ideal of a new creature in
Christ.
Rodríguez studied for a semester in Newton, N.J., in the
late 1960s, and has visited the United States several times since. From 1995 to
1999 he served as president of CELAM, the federation of Latin American
bishops conferences.
Rodríguez has taken few clear stands on contested doctrinal
issues or matters of church politics but is widely respected as a champion of
social justice. He said he lives in a part of the world where poverty breeds
such desperate acts as kidnapping babies at supermarkets and ransoming them to
their mothers in exchange for groceries.
I am quite clear that justice is the agenda for the 21st
century in all our countries in Latin America, he said.
Uppermost on this agenda is cancellation of Third World debt,
which Rodríguez has called a tombstone pressing down on us.
In June 1999, Rodríguez and rock star Bono from U2 joined forces at a
G-8 meeting to present a petition with 17 million signatures demanding debt
relief.
Unlike some Latin American prelates who have risen to prominence
under John Paul, Rodríguez was never identified with right-wing reaction
against liberation theology, a blend of post-Vatican II Catholicism with
leftist political movements during the 1970s and 1980s. He earned a reputation
as a mediator between his countrys military government and the more
liberal wing of the church. All extremism is fatal, he said in 1983
as auxiliary bishop of Tegucigalpa.
The moral authority Rodríguez enjoys was evident in 1997,
when a commission he chaired recommended converting Honduras military
police into a civilian force. Shortly after the commission finished its work,
Rodríguez went to Houston for minor surgery. In his absence, parliament
elected him the countrys new chief of police, though he declined to
serve.
Rodríguez said Latin American societies badly need
formation in democratic values. Within the church, he spots an incongruity in
leaders who preach democracy and practice absolutism.
We that have Indian blood in our veins have the temptation
to be chiefs, he said. Many times when you have a layman that is
given a small part of authority, he becomes a chief. When you have a pastor in
a parish, he says, In my parish I am the one who commands.
Thats not the way to build democracy.
He is upbeat about collaboration with laity. Rodríguez said
that 15,000 men and women fan out every week in his country to read scriptures,
preach, and in some cases take Communion to parts of Honduras that priests
rarely see. There are only 400 priests in the nation of 6 million
Catholics.
Observers in Honduras report that Rodríguez himself lacks
contact with people at the grass roots. At the same time, he is said to be
among the more approachable cardinals.
A long-time observer tells of watching him on a plane surrounded
by passengers wanting his attention. One especially zealous man walked
Rodríguez down the corridor as they got off; when Rodríguez
attempted to say goodbye, explaining that he needed to use the restroom, the
man simply walked in with him.
Rodríguez took it all in good humor.
Because he has a responsibility for the whole church,
Rodríguez said he is concerned that the church grow in collegiality. Yet
he said he does not chafe under curial control. In general, the ocean is
very big, he said. We have a great feeling of freedom.
The new cardinal claims to be unimpressed by talk that he could
become pope. It makes me laugh, he said. I know that when the
time comes, the Holy Spirit is the one that is going to act.
Does he think the Holy Spirit might lead the Latin Americans to
vote as a block?
Who knows? Rodríguez says. Then a
characteristically wide grin: That would be a good sign of
collegiality!
The e-mail address for John L. Allen Jr. is
jallen@natcath.org
For the complete text of Allens interview with
Rodríguez, go to NCRs Web site
http://www.natcath.com/NCR_Online/documents/index.htm
National Catholic Reporter, March 9,
2001
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