Music
Nicholson: Rome -- for two thousand years, home of the sovereign state of the Vatican. The city may be eternal, but with one health scare after another, time is running out for the 264th, Pope John Paul the Second.
The cardinals, are scrutinising their own ranks to choose the first new Pope in 27 years -- one who can stem a loss of followers of the faith. Arinze: The repercussion is that if that trend continues, then the people are becoming less and less Christian. Less and less Christian.
Scola: Many are choosing sects or groups because of the weakness of our witness. We need people more engaged with the faith.
Nicholson: The field of candidates might be large, but the morally conservative, Polish-born pontiff handpicked nearly all of them. He has created a group of cardinals in his own image. The possibility the next Pope might be more liberally minded is almost non-existent. Allen: If you ask the general public what are the big issues facing the church, any of them would name things like abortion or divorce or birth control or gay marriage, these are kind of the hot button, what we call pelvic issues.
But inside the College of Cardinals, there isnt much disagreement on those questions. By and large, they would all have the same position that the catechism of the church and the Pope have.
Nicholson: Although they may be conservative in that sense, the favoured cardinals from South America, Europe and Africa who are frontrunners for the top job, are men of great contrasts. The two youre going to meet in our story represent some very different approaches to the future of the church.
Cardinal Francis Arinze is both passionate about winning over people in the developing world and impeccably connected in Rome, making him an obvious contender.Arinze: I just feel that I am myself. If I am more Roman than African, other people will judge. I will not be a good judge in my own case, so let them judge. But I only try to be myself.
Nicholson: The African drummers and dancers who pushed aside the Latin pomp in St Peters Basilica a decade ago were a powerful symbol of the churchs continuing shift in influence from the old world to the new.
Everybody noticed the cardinal from Nigeria who sat on the papal throne during this first ever synod of African bishops. Could he be the first black Pope of the modern era?OConnell: I certainly think that Cardinal Arinze could be Pope, and I think he would be a very attractive Pope, because he communicates joy.
Nicholson: For twenty years, Vatican journalist Gerard OConnell has watched Arinze grow from strength to strength.
OConnell: His observers, those who are in the Vatican as well, note that he never put a foot wrong, and one of his close collaborators said to me, the amazing thing about this man is that he can say the hardest things to people, and yet not offend, because he says it with a smile.
Nicholson: Francis Arinze was born in 1932 in Eziowelle, a village in south-east Nigeria. One of seven children of Joseph and Bernadette. He was raised in the beliefs of the African traditional religion until he was converted by missionaries. Arinze: I was only 9 years old when I was baptised, so you must not think I was a great theologian in the African traditional religion, then I studied at the holy Eucharist and all the books of Thomas Aquinas and then I became a Catholic not really. I was just a small boy of 9 years.
Nicholson: He trained for the priesthood in Italy but was ordained in Nigeria. Rome noticed his talent early. In 1965, he was made the youngest bishop in the world.
Arinze has risen to be one of the most powerful men at the Vatican. From his office overlooking St. Peters, he heads the congregation for divine worship, putting him in charge of the prayer life of the church.
Arinze: Everything else -- our work, our hopes, our disappointments, everything in one, so the Mass becomes the cult event, the event of worship which is central to my day.
But it was Cardinal Arinzes former position as the Popes right hand man in inter-religious dialogue that set him apart. For 18 years he was at John Paul the Seconds side as he criss-crossed the globe to connect with the not only the worlds one billion Catholics but also the other great religions.
Nicholson: In the mid-eighties, the cardinal did the Popes bidding to organise a controversial gathering of leaders of all religions in Assisi -- in the heart of Catholic Italy. It was an event frowned on by more conservative forces at the Vatican.
Allen: They stood together in a circle, where the Pope was on the same level and occupying the same position as, you know, a rabbi and a mufti and a native American wearing Indian headdress and so forth.
This was a cause of enormous scandal among the conservatives in the Vatican who thought, who saw this as relativism and new age and just couldnt believe that a Pope would do it.
Nicholson: This experience could be indispensable in coming years as the Catholic Church competes with the rise of Islam.
The faithful who worship in this giant mosque in Rome, almost on the doorstep of the Vatican, are a powerful reminder of the competition the Catholic Church faces for followers in both the developed and developing world.
Allen: So that mosque in Rome tends to be a tremendous symbol, if you like, of what sticks in the craw of a lot of Christians thinking about the relationship with Islam.
Mario Scialoja is a rare Italian. He converted from Catholicism to Islam. A former Italian ambassador to the United Nations, hes now the director of Italys World Muslim League.
Scialoja: I dont expect
there to be happy to see such a fast growth of the Muslim faith in Italy, but I mean they didnt show any any resentment for that.
Nicholson: Islam is making inroads into traditional Christian areas with a zeal and energy that cannot be ignored.
Vatican watcher, journalist John Allen, has no doubt the Catholic Church is afraid.
Allen: Tremendously afraid.
I think the reality is that if you look at the world situation, Islam has about 1.1 billion members. So does Roman Catholicism. Islam is expanding rapidly in a lot of border zones where Christianity has traditionally found itself.
Nicholson: Arinze is prepared to tackle the contest head-on. His approach to inter-faith dialogue is straightforward. The aim of the game is more Catholics.
Arinze: So when everybody becomes a Catholic,
the Pope will close that office for inter-religious dialogue, but this one for sacraments and divine worship will remain. But we have not come to that day yet, and we cannot arrive at religious unity by force or by manoeuvre, or by political arm-twisting.
Nicholson: But theres another issue that is preoccupying the Vatican -- the loss of belief among traditional Catholic populations in the more affluent west.
Its one that Australian Cardinal George Pell, an influential member of the most conservative wing in Rome, knows only too well.
Pell: There is a very, very real challenge for the faith here in Europe, which traditionally has been the intellectual and spiritual motor of the church.
That if there's a continuing radical collapse here in Europe it will -- and there's no inevitability about that -- that will weakness us considerably.
Allen: Theres a deep crisis there. And theres a sense that this Pope, just for whatever reason has not been able to figure out how to talk to western Europe. And so I think there is a sense that something has to be done about that.
Nicholson: The remedy could rest in Venice the city that gave the world three Popes last century.
Music
Nicholson: Theres nothing more that Italian Catholics would like than to restore one of their own to the papal throne. Here in Venice, the historical meeting point between east and west, they have a rising star. Many believe the patriarch of Venice has what it takes to navigate the Vatican through what could be stormy waters ahead
Music
Nicholson: Angelo Scola has been a cardinal for only sixteen months, but his formidable reputation has catapulted him to the fore.
Scola: To me the problem is to have the courage
to renew the proposal of the integrity of the beauty of following Jesus Christ. That is the problem.
Nicholson: The cardinals target -- young people, heeding the call of their citys new patriarch.
Thousands flocked to church for the festival of the Madonna to give thanks for saving the people of Venice from the plague a ritual that goes back four hundred years.
Now sixty-three, Cardinal Scola cut his teeth running the tough Milan diocese before moving to Venice. A former rector of the Lateran University, his Rome credentials are also strong. His mission-- to strengthen Catholic communities, inspire people to return to the faith and to resist those hostile to religion.
Allen: Hes an optimist at the end of the day.
He believes the church has a winning message and it can get into the street and it can win the argument. And in my experience of politics, optimism tends to carry you a long way. So I think for all of those reason Scola is certainly someone a lot of people have their eyes on.
Nicholson: The Scola solution to the Catholic malaise is to support and encourage young men and women back to religion and traditional values.
Noemi and Martino Costa and baby Eva could be his model family. Unlike the large majority of Italians, this couple in their twenties, embraces Catholicism and all that Scola stands for.
Noemi: Yes, hes given it a new lease on life by immediately wanting to meet the young, the couples as well as those young people with a vocation. Hes a strong man of deep convictions, his words affect me deeply.
He is an exceptional person. You see he doesnt tell us to be good, well-mannered, polite -- in brief, politically correct as Christians. No, he exhorts us to be in love with Christ.
Scola: The beauty of the man and woman love within marriage, a marriage open to the life is a great
chance for the person and for the society. Unfortunately today, many people are confused about that but the confusion could be overcome only through witness,
Nicholson: While the world watches the decline of Pope John Paul the second, the cardinals are trying to decide what is more important for the future a Pope who can reinvigorate the faith in the old world, or one who can gather more followers in the developing world. But there could be a surprise element.
Allen: One of the great x factors in all of this is that the papacy has the tendency to change a man. I mean its much like when a judge is appointed to the supreme court. Its the last job theyre ever going to hold. They no longer have anyone looking over their shoulder, except God, and so you know suddenly sometimes for the first time in their career theyre free to act in the way they truly think things ought to be done, and its hard to anticipate what thats going to mean.
Nicholson: The cardinals keep their deliberations to themselves. It will only be when the white smoke rises again above the Vatican after more than a quarter of a century that the world will know the decision of their secret conclave. Until then, speculation, let alone lobbying, is a no-no.
Nicholson: I know you dont like talking about politics, but as a member of the conclave some people say the conclave
Arinze: Well leave that one. Nicholson: You dont want to talk about the conclave at all?Arinze: We dont discuss that one.
Scola: Now we have the Pope is still living with courage and with very spiritual strength, so we have to serve him and then Im not worried about the future because the holy spirit really assist, assist the church and at time the right person will be, will be chosen.
Music
Reporter: Anne Maria Nicholson
Camera: Richard Malone
Editor: Bryan Milliss
Research: Mavourneen Dineen
Producer: Guilia Sirignani
Nicholson: Rome -- for two thousand years, home of the sovereign state of the Vatican. The city may be eternal, but with one health scare after another, time is running out for the 264th, Pope John Paul the Second.
The cardinals, are scrutinising their own ranks to choose the first new Pope in 27 years -- one who can stem a loss of followers of the faith. Arinze: The repercussion is that if that trend continues, then the people are becoming less and less Christian. Less and less Christian.
Scola: Many are choosing sects or groups because of the weakness of our witness. We need people more engaged with the faith.
Nicholson: The field of candidates might be large, but the morally conservative, Polish-born pontiff handpicked nearly all of them. He has created a group of cardinals in his own image. The possibility the next Pope might be more liberally minded is almost non-existent. Allen: If you ask the general public what are the big issues facing the church, any of them would name things like abortion or divorce or birth control or gay marriage, these are kind of the hot button, what we call pelvic issues.
But inside the College of Cardinals, there isnt much disagreement on those questions. By and large, they would all have the same position that the catechism of the church and the Pope have.
Nicholson: Although they may be conservative in that sense, the favoured cardinals from South America, Europe and Africa who are frontrunners for the top job, are men of great contrasts. The two youre going to meet in our story represent some very different approaches to the future of the church.
Cardinal Francis Arinze is both passionate about winning over people in the developing world and impeccably connected in Rome, making him an obvious contender.Arinze: I just feel that I am myself. If I am more Roman than African, other people will judge. I will not be a good judge in my own case, so let them judge. But I only try to be myself.
Nicholson: The African drummers and dancers who pushed aside the Latin pomp in St Peters Basilica a decade ago were a powerful symbol of the churchs continuing shift in influence from the old world to the new.
Everybody noticed the cardinal from Nigeria who sat on the papal throne during this first ever synod of African bishops. Could he be the first black Pope of the modern era?OConnell: I certainly think that Cardinal Arinze could be Pope, and I think he would be a very attractive Pope, because he communicates joy.
Nicholson: For twenty years, Vatican journalist Gerard OConnell has watched Arinze grow from strength to strength.
OConnell: His observers, those who are in the Vatican as well, note that he never put a foot wrong, and one of his close collaborators said to me, the amazing thing about this man is that he can say the hardest things to people, and yet not offend, because he says it with a smile.
Nicholson: Francis Arinze was born in 1932 in Eziowelle, a village in south-east Nigeria. One of seven children of Joseph and Bernadette. He was raised in the beliefs of the African traditional religion until he was converted by missionaries. Arinze: I was only 9 years old when I was baptised, so you must not think I was a great theologian in the African traditional religion, then I studied at the holy Eucharist and all the books of Thomas Aquinas and then I became a Catholic not really. I was just a small boy of 9 years.
Nicholson: He trained for the priesthood in Italy but was ordained in Nigeria. Rome noticed his talent early. In 1965, he was made the youngest bishop in the world.
Arinze has risen to be one of the most powerful men at the Vatican. From his office overlooking St. Peters, he heads the congregation for divine worship, putting him in charge of the prayer life of the church.
Arinze: Everything else -- our work, our hopes, our disappointments, everything in one, so the Mass becomes the cult event, the event of worship which is central to my day.
But it was Cardinal Arinzes former position as the Popes right hand man in inter-religious dialogue that set him apart. For 18 years he was at John Paul the Seconds side as he criss-crossed the globe to connect with the not only the worlds one billion Catholics but also the other great religions.
Nicholson: In the mid-eighties, the cardinal did the Popes bidding to organise a controversial gathering of leaders of all religions in Assisi -- in the heart of Catholic Italy. It was an event frowned on by more conservative forces at the Vatican.
Allen: They stood together in a circle, where the Pope was on the same level and occupying the same position as, you know, a rabbi and a mufti and a native American wearing Indian headdress and so forth.
This was a cause of enormous scandal among the conservatives in the Vatican who thought, who saw this as relativism and new age and just couldnt believe that a Pope would do it.
Nicholson: This experience could be indispensable in coming years as the Catholic Church competes with the rise of Islam.
The faithful who worship in this giant mosque in Rome, almost on the doorstep of the Vatican, are a powerful reminder of the competition the Catholic Church faces for followers in both the developed and developing world.
Allen: So that mosque in Rome tends to be a tremendous symbol, if you like, of what sticks in the craw of a lot of Christians thinking about the relationship with Islam.
Mario Scialoja is a rare Italian. He converted from Catholicism to Islam. A former Italian ambassador to the United Nations, hes now the director of Italys World Muslim League.
Scialoja: I dont expect
there to be happy to see such a fast growth of the Muslim faith in Italy, but I mean they didnt show any any resentment for that.
Nicholson: Islam is making inroads into traditional Christian areas with a zeal and energy that cannot be ignored.
Vatican watcher, journalist John Allen, has no doubt the Catholic Church is afraid.
Allen: Tremendously afraid.
I think the reality is that if you look at the world situation, Islam has about 1.1 billion members. So does Roman Catholicism. Islam is expanding rapidly in a lot of border zones where Christianity has traditionally found itself.
Nicholson: Arinze is prepared to tackle the contest head-on. His approach to inter-faith dialogue is straightforward. The aim of the game is more Catholics.
Arinze: So when everybody becomes a Catholic,
the Pope will close that office for inter-religious dialogue, but this one for sacraments and divine worship will remain. But we have not come to that day yet, and we cannot arrive at religious unity by force or by manoeuvre, or by political arm-twisting.
Nicholson: But theres another issue that is preoccupying the Vatican -- the loss of belief among traditional Catholic populations in the more affluent west.
Its one that Australian Cardinal George Pell, an influential member of the most conservative wing in Rome, knows only too well.
Pell: There is a very, very real challenge for the faith here in Europe, which traditionally has been the intellectual and spiritual motor of the church.
That if there's a continuing radical collapse here in Europe it will -- and there's no inevitability about that -- that will weakness us considerably.
Allen: Theres a deep crisis there. And theres a sense that this Pope, just for whatever reason has not been able to figure out how to talk to western Europe. And so I think there is a sense that something has to be done about that.
Nicholson: The remedy could rest in Venice the city that gave the world three Popes last century.
Music
Nicholson: Theres nothing more that Italian Catholics would like than to restore one of their own to the papal throne. Here in Venice, the historical meeting point between east and west, they have a rising star. Many believe the patriarch of Venice has what it takes to navigate the Vatican through what could be stormy waters ahead
Music
Nicholson: Angelo Scola has been a cardinal for only sixteen months, but his formidable reputation has catapulted him to the fore.
Scola: To me the problem is to have the courage
to renew the proposal of the integrity of the beauty of following Jesus Christ. That is the problem.
Nicholson: The cardinals target -- young people, heeding the call of their citys new patriarch.
Thousands flocked to church for the festival of the Madonna to give thanks for saving the people of Venice from the plague a ritual that goes back four hundred years.
Now sixty-three, Cardinal Scola cut his teeth running the tough Milan diocese before moving to Venice. A former rector of the Lateran University, his Rome credentials are also strong. His mission-- to strengthen Catholic communities, inspire people to return to the faith and to resist those hostile to religion.
Allen: Hes an optimist at the end of the day.
He believes the church has a winning message and it can get into the street and it can win the argument. And in my experience of politics, optimism tends to carry you a long way. So I think for all of those reason Scola is certainly someone a lot of people have their eyes on.
Nicholson: The Scola solution to the Catholic malaise is to support and encourage young men and women back to religion and traditional values.
Noemi and Martino Costa and baby Eva could be his model family. Unlike the large majority of Italians, this couple in their twenties, embraces Catholicism and all that Scola stands for.
Noemi: Yes, hes given it a new lease on life by immediately wanting to meet the young, the couples as well as those young people with a vocation. Hes a strong man of deep convictions, his words affect me deeply.
He is an exceptional person. You see he doesnt tell us to be good, well-mannered, polite -- in brief, politically correct as Christians. No, he exhorts us to be in love with Christ.
Scola: The beauty of the man and woman love within marriage, a marriage open to the life is a great
chance for the person and for the society. Unfortunately today, many people are confused about that but the confusion could be overcome only through witness,
Nicholson: While the world watches the decline of Pope John Paul the second, the cardinals are trying to decide what is more important for the future a Pope who can reinvigorate the faith in the old world, or one who can gather more followers in the developing world. But there could be a surprise element.
Allen: One of the great x factors in all of this is that the papacy has the tendency to change a man. I mean its much like when a judge is appointed to the supreme court. Its the last job theyre ever going to hold. They no longer have anyone looking over their shoulder, except God, and so you know suddenly sometimes for the first time in their career theyre free to act in the way they truly think things ought to be done, and its hard to anticipate what thats going to mean.
Nicholson: The cardinals keep their deliberations to themselves. It will only be when the white smoke rises again above the Vatican after more than a quarter of a century that the world will know the decision of their secret conclave. Until then, speculation, let alone lobbying, is a no-no.
Nicholson: I know you dont like talking about politics, but as a member of the conclave some people say the conclave
Arinze: Well leave that one. Nicholson: You dont want to talk about the conclave at all?Arinze: We dont discuss that one.
Scola: Now we have the Pope is still living with courage and with very spiritual strength, so we have to serve him and then Im not worried about the future because the holy spirit really assist, assist the church and at time the right person will be, will be chosen.
Music
Reporter: Anne Maria Nicholson
Camera: Richard Malone
Editor: Bryan Milliss
Research: Mavourneen Dineen
Producer: Guilia Sirignani