MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
When cardinals enter the Sistine Chapel Wednesday to choose a new pope, the conclave will be unique. For the first time, fewer than half of the voting cardinals are European. Pope Francis appointed cardinals from Myanmar, Rwanda, Tonga and many other countries in the Global South. NPR's Ruth Sherlock reports on how this will influence who ends up being the next pope.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED CHOIR: (Singing in non-English language).
RUTH SHERLOCK, BYLINE: In churches all over Rome this week, cardinals who've flown in for the conclave hold masses.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED CARDINAL: (Non-English language spoken).
SHERLOCK: They've traveled from some 70 countries.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SHERLOCK: In the 1900s, power was concentrated close to Rome. Almost all the cardinals were European. This conclave, the late Pope Francis made sure will be truly global. Francis appointed the vast majority, 80% of the 135 cardinals originally eligible to vote in this enclave.
ALISTAIR DUTTON: We went through a time where it was very much the church focused on the church, and I think Francis has been a pope for the world.
SHERLOCK: Alistair Dutton is the secretary general of Caritas Internationalis.
DUTTON: He really wanted a world, an economy, a social vision that was focused on people and the poorest.
SHERLOCK: Some of the newer cardinals have direct experience with the hardship of war and extraordinary personal stories like that of Cardinal Dieudonne Nzapalainga from the Central African Republic.
DIEUDONNE NZAPALAINGA: (Speaking French).
SHERLOCK: At the height of the conflict between Christian and Muslim factions in his country, Nzapalainga risked his life to save the nation's leading Muslim figure.
NZAPALAINGA: (Speaking French).
SHERLOCK: "The rebels came to fight against the Muslims. I went to look for the imam, and I asked him to come and live with me," he says. "I saw the hatred in the rebels' eyes." The Christian cardinal and Muslim imam lived side by side in the cardinal's home and worked to try to end the war.
NZAPALAINGA: (Speaking French).
SHERLOCK: The first non-European pope in centuries. This change in the makeup of cardinals to include more countries from the Global South was Pope Francis' quiet revolution. But there is a strong backlash from factions that want to return to a more traditional and perhaps, for some, more Western-centric church.
ROBERT SIRICO: A lot of meals in discreet places where that conversation is going to go on.
SHERLOCK: Father Robert Sirico, who helps run a religious think tank, says having cardinals from many countries who don't know each other or Rome could make it easier for the older guard to influence the newcomers.
SIRICO: If I were a cardinal, I would be lining up the names of people that I want to know and inviting them to dinner or coffee or whatever it happens to be, just to - and have a few points of reference.
SHERLOCK: The cardinals have been meeting at the Vatican to discuss exactly this. What are the priorities for the church that will shape their choice of pope?
I'm here by one of the exits of the Vatican, and this is where the cardinals come out after meeting the general congregation. And it is a press scrum. It is dozens of journalists waiting to try to catch one of these cardinals in their black and red robes, to get any kind of comment, any kind of clue, any kind of information. They are the people of the moment.
I chase Jorge Enrique Jimenez Carvajal from Colombia and ask him, is the diversity of cardinals doing what Francis hoped? Has it changed what they're prioritizing in these meetings?
JORGE ENRIQUE JIMENZ CARVAJAL: (Speaking Spanish).
SHERLOCK: "This is very clear," Cardinal Carvajal says. "The church has opened a new dialogue with the world."
JIMENZ CARVAJAL: (Speaking Spanish).
SHERLOCK: Is it time for another pope from the Global South?
JIMENZ CARVAJAL: (Speaking Spanish).
SHERLOCK: "It's very difficult to say."
JIMENZ CARVAJAL: (Speaking Spanish).
SHERLOCK: "The only person who knows that," says Carvajal, "is God."
Ruth Sherlock, NPR News, Rome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
