CATHOLICS MEET TO ELECT NEW BLACK POPE

Catholics meet to elect new black pope

Credit: ©ALESSIA GIULIANI/CPP


• Tuesday, Jan 8, 2008

The Jesuits from around the world gathered yesterday to choose the worldwide Jesuit leader to run the largest Catholic clerical order known as the black pope.

At Jesuit headquarters, a block from the Vatican, 225 delegates from around the world will choose a new superior general to run the Catholic clerical order.

The election is expected to take place in mid-January after days of prayer among the delegates.

The new Jesuit leader is elected by a secret ballot.

After his election, the delegates are not allowed to leave the room until Pope Benedict is informed, in keeping with a centuries-old tradition.

But unlike a conclave to elect the real pope, a Jesuit general congregation can continue for weeks or even months after the new head has been elected.

Their leader is known as the black pope because of the colour of the simple cassock he wears and because like the pope who dresses in white.

The current superior general, Father Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, 79, received permission from Pope Benedict to retire for age reasons.

Kolvenbach has been in the job since 1983 and has won widespread praise for steering the Jesuits through one of their most difficult periods in their 468-year history.

Kolvenbach's charismatic predecessor, Pedro Arrupe, had several conflicts with Pope John Paul, who believed the order had become too independent and political, in Latin America.

When Arrupe suffered a stroke in the early 1980s, Pope John Paul appointed a personal delegate to run the order.

Kolvenbach, by contrast, has been credited with re-establishing good relations with the Vatican in the past 25 years.

He deals with issues such as declining vocations and the future of the order founded by St. Ignatius Loyola in 1540.

In the 1960s, the all-male order officially known as the Society of Jesus peaked with some 36,000 members worldwide.

It now has about 19,200 members involved in education, refugee help and other social services.

One is Father Lisbert DâSousa of India, and some Jesuits have said it was time for the top job to go to someone from the developing world.

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