Monday, April 18, 2005Among the cardinals aspiring to succeed John Paul II, there are Europeans, Latin-Americans, and an African. As a man of color myself, I find it disconcerting that I give little thought to the idea that a man of color can be elected Pope. In my book, the one who stands the least chance of succeeding John Paul II is the African cardinal. Society’s portrayal of black people is to blame. Well, blame is not the right word, for the portrayal is not always negative — depends on who’s asked, actually. Myself, I consider my (Mexican) blackness to nicely complement my mestizaje (indigenous and European background). Then again, I know better. Individuality nullifies all stereotypes. An individual is more unlike than like others said to be like him. Back to the Pope issue… I’m not a believer, but yet I hold a view regarding the candidates to succeed the Pope. None of them bears the (appearance of) sainthood that John Paul II took to his grave. I refer specifically to that image he projected in the early years of his Papacy. He looked sweet and loving. Posted by at 8:32 pm [Permalink]
No CommentsNo comments yet. RSS feed for comments on this post. Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time. |
|||