The Accidental Pope (44 page)

Although there was no sign of outright anger in the faces before him, there was little indication of agreement either. The ambassador took a sip of his wine and rubbed his chin as he cleared his throat. “Well, now, Bill, I can agree with at least one of your pronouncements: The ideas are all a bit odd.” Laughter rose from the small gathering.

The Israeli statesman continued. “I confess that I never pictured our concept of being ‘chosen' quite your way. I also can see that if, by some miracle, we were the first nation in the world to lay down our arms and trust in God, it might exert an astonishing effect for a short time. Witness Gandhi in India. I also realize your own history would suggest that placing your trust and interests in others would not be in the best interests of Americans. By the same token, when we have left our fate to others to decide, it has often not been in the Jewish people's best interests. But I promise you this at least, Bill. I will sincerely convey what you have said to our leaders in Israel. Who knows … perhaps after they have recovered from the shock, there might be a microscopic seed planted for future action. It won't come close to anything you envision. But perhaps they could use an idea to make a new beginning for the never-ending peace talks.”

“I quite understand your concern.” The pope smiled. “Yet I think with the world news constantly before our eyes for all to see, your desire to disarm and bring in a NATO- or UN-type peacekeeping group would force your adversaries to give honest answers when you suggest they could also disarm.” On that thoughtful note the meeting ended.

Several hours later, thousands of curious spectators who wanted to witness the historic event lined up beside the Tiber River and along the streets inside the Ghetto. The setting and pageantry were incredible as Jewish leaders throughout the world pulled up in their automobiles into an area that not too long ago had been the brutal and inhumane scene of Fascist and Nazi oppression. They heard the beautiful music of London's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by the talented Gilbert Levine. The flags of all the nations hung from the utility poles. Street musicians played Jewish festival music with an occasional “Santa Lucia” thrown in.

The pope, in his brief comments, once again condemned anti-Semitism and reminded all present that on the morning of October 16, 1943, Nazi SS officers had stormed these very streets and arrested more than twelve hundred people. They were taken to jails in Rome and a few days later sent by train to Auschwitz in Poland. Many suffered a cruel death at the hands of the Nazis. He reminded everyone of Winston Churchill's words that the Holocaust was “probably the greatest and most terrible crime ever committed in the entire history of the world.”

A young college exchange student, Ellen Parks of New York's St. John's University, was with her class listening and watching the ceremonies from behind the roped-off area. She was heard telling her friends that her grandfather was a “liberator” of the Jews from a Nazi concentration camp in Poland while serving in the U.S. Army. “Who knows?” she said. “Maybe some of those liberated were from this very place.”

The headlines in leading Italian newspapers the next day read, “A Night Made in Heaven” with a large color photo of Pope Peter II and Rabbi Koburn with his wife, Rachel, toasting one another in the most visibly friendly way. The respected
Jewish Advocate
and the archdiocese newspaper
The Pilot,
both based in Boston, perhaps best captured the events of the day in Rome with unprecedented dual lead editorials titled, “No Empty Gesture—We Remember.”

35

AFRICA

Now the real work was starting for Bill Kelly in his improbable but, as he was more than ever convinced, divinely inspired role as Peter II. Colleen, still consumed by interests incompatible with the Church her father now led, had nonetheless decided to stay on and would enroll at Loyola University. Ryan was safely back in Buzzards Bay tending to business there. Monsignor Shanahan and Cardinal Motupu had persuaded the pope that Africa represented the single biggest struggle the Catholic Church faced now that a temporary peace, at least, had been reached in the Balkans. Not only was the “Dark Continent” experiencing the possible extermination of its population from the AIDS virus, civil wars, and starvation, but also extreme Islamic fundamentalism was literally pronouncing a death sentence on its African nonconformists. Many of the warnings laid out by John Paul II in his
avviso
pertained directly to Africa.

Furthermore, the Eastern Orthodox Church, having legislatively banned Catholicism in Russia, was now attempting to undermine the Catholic faith in sub-Saharan Christian Africa. The patriarch in Moscow had long led frequent forays into Catholic African states.

Tim Shanahan read Pope Peter II the comments of Pope John Paul II, written in September 1995, two days after his plane had touched down in Africa. Standing before a mosaic designed by a murdered priest in Cameroon, wearing his new green and gold vestments, the pope asked his African clerics to strike back at their continent's corruption, hopelessness, and “unspeakable suffering.”

He likened Africa to a man left beaten and near death, and said the Church must come urgently to its aid. “This very sad situation … also has internal causes such as tribalism, nepotism, racism, religious intolerance, and a thirst for power to the extreme by totalitarian local governments.”

“That was more than six years ago,” Tim pointed out. “Since then almost a million members of the Tutsi tribes in central Africa have been massacred, slashed to pieces with machetes, or, if lucky, merely shot to death by the armies of provincial despots. Cardinal Motupu will tell you of Catholic missionaries and African priests found murdered by those Africans who supported the leadership of the highly visible Russian Orthodox bishop, Yussotov. He was known formerly as the Mad Monk of Odessa,” Tim chuckled. “His acolytes preach a combination of Communist doctrine peppered generously with a perverted Christian myth that has swept through so many sub-Saharan states and led to those totalitarian dictators whose ‘one man, one vote' slogan had become ‘one man, one vote, one time.' This is particularly noticeable in Zimbabwe, where the dictator, Robert Mugabe, has held power for twenty-one years and shows no signs of relinquishing his grip on the once-prosperous state of Rhodesia.” Shanahan's reading of the former pope's 1995 letter, coupled with Bill's reading of the
avviso,
illuminated the overwhelming chaos that would be in store for the world if this pope and his successors stood idly by.

*   *   *

Moputu had arrived at the Vatican, and the pope was now well briefed on his reasons for being there. Cardinal Robitelli was strongly against Pope Peter's intention to make a visit to Africa as Moputu urged. The health and safety risks were a serious enough factor. The entire Vatican senior staff was convinced that the Turk who had tried to assassinate Pope John Paul II in 1981 had been hired by the Soviet KGB with the knowledge and concurrence of the Russian patriarch. The latter felt that the pope was the single greatest threat to his world at that time. There was no reason why this American pope, Peter II, wouldn't constitute an even greater threat to Russian hopes for renewed totalitarianism at home or throughout the world. As secretary of state, Robitelli was au courant with all formal discussions of “the African problem.” “The Forgotten Continent,” as Bill Kelly referred to the land so full of potential, constituted the most pressing dark cloud looming on the papal horizon.

Motupu begged Pope Peter to visit Africa and carry on where his predecessor had left off. He even lobbied the pope's inner circle about the importance of the trip. Bill's kitchen cabinet consisted of Cardinal Comiskey (when he could fly in from Ireland), Tim Shanahan, U.S. ambassador Ed Kirby, and Cardinal Motupu himself, burning up frequent-flyer miles between central Africa and Rome.

Motupu laid out the situation at his first meeting with the inner circle during this mid-January visit. True, African priests and bishops had asked John Paul II to encourage the Church to tolerate more African traditions such as ancestor worship and typical African ceremonial customs including tom-toms and dancing in Church. Many Catholic clerics with experience in Africa believed the Church should rethink its opposition to passing out birth control information to help curb AIDS.

But, Motupu stressed, Pope John Paul II had only promised to consider studying African rites like spirit worship, insisting that the Catholic Church must remain “universal” in its tenets. He had urged his clergy to give “all possible material, moral, and spiritual comfort” to AIDS suffers, yet never permitted condom use to prevent its spread in the first place.

Kirby laid out the unexpressed but fervent attitude of the United States toward further involvement in Africa, fingering Sudan, Libya, and Ethiopia, all terrorist-dominated countries. The ambassador had access to all CIA and State Department cables, but was beginning to worry that his enemies in Washington knew he was sharing delicate information with the pope on African internal politics. Still, Kirby believed it was in U.S. national security interests that Africa become stable.

The ambassador had been present when the Muslim leader who had greeted Pope John Paul II in Cameroon called for yearly meetings between the two faiths “to block the way of all fanatics.” Pope John Paul II had responded by urging better ties with moderate Muslims who shared the conviction that it was unacceptable “to kill another person in the name of religion.”

Tim Shanahan pointed out that it was the religious fanatics who had infiltrated this mainstream religion who were causing trouble and instability throughout the world. They were using the United States' and Britain's favorable relationship with Israel as a tool to whip up anger among Arabs and Muslims. The real threat to the world would come from countries that owned or were developing chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons. “We cannot allow the Islamic world to feel that they need to acquire weapons of mass destruction in order to protect themselves,” Tim summed up. Pope Peter now understood better than his predecessor had those heartrending scenes seen less frequently on TV that once awakened pity for the fly-covered babies with distended bellies and twig-skinny arms and legs. Americans, he realized, believed that to send food and aid merely filled the coffers of the warlords. They appropriated the bounty and sold it for profit or used it as leverage for political purposes, ignoring their dying people.

Americans had short memories, but with the help of a best-selling account they would never forget the fate of U.S. troops sent in to guard the food in Somalia and ensure that it was distributed fairly. The bodies of brave U.S. Marines dragged through the streets by Somalian warlords and desecrated by armed hoodlums reverberated in American minds whenever it was suggested the United States give financial and military aid to Africa. And the AIDS epidemic in Africa, into the third millennium, frightened Americans when it came to allowing Africans to enter America. The recent revelation of a 50 percent drop in life expectancy in many parts of the continent added to this fear.

“In other words,” Kirby counseled, “do not depend upon help from America.”

Motupu deplored what he was hearing, but he was a realist and knew what the ambassador said was the bottom line of American sentiment.

Cardinal Comiskey reported that even Ireland, despite its very special relationship with Africa, was slowly becoming disillusioned with the deaths from disease and the brutal violence against courageous nuns and priests who were trying to help. The families of the dead Irish nuns in particular were outraged at the lack of protection for their loved ones.

Tim Shanahan was hard put to come up with a solution for Motupu to an unsolvable problem. Famine and overpopulation were an unending crisis in most parts of Africa. The White House, influential and well-connected feminists, and pro-choice groups were pressuring the UN to adopt a population control policy via abortion and sterilization, which the Church flatly opposed. They ran TV spots on prime time and threatened to cut off economic aid if these developing countries did not support U.S. policy. There was even considerable debate in the Church coming from nuns about birth control and condoms to prevent disease spreading among the educated African minority and thence downward to the masses.

Monsignor Shanahan took the group back a year, telling of a crucial meeting he had attended in this very library with Pope John Paul II.

“If the Church would allow condoms and birth control in Africa,” a leading African bishop had declared to some of the pope's intimate advisers, “we could do something meaningful to slow down the spread of disease and overpopulation in our countries. We have brought millions to the Church by injecting tribal customs and music into the Mass, so we could save millions from this virus that threatens to kill us by half. We need only advocate using condoms to control it.”

“For an official of the Church to express this sentiment was virtual heresy,” Shanahan pointed out. “Not a sound was uttered. It seemed nobody wanted to be critical of him. Finally the pope had his enigmatic say, and I quote him precisely. ‘We must feed people and create a safe environment. But we always choose life over death.' That basically ended the debate,” Tim recounted. “The bishop politely nodded to his pope in obedience.”

Tim shifted the emphasis. “So, let's go on to your other problems a moment, Your Holiness.” Bill Kelly breathed a sigh of relief at not having to opine on this most delicate Vatican subject.

“
Our
other problems, I should say,” Tim amended. “Those concerning the Eastern Orthodox Church and extreme Islamic fundamentalism.”

“I'm listening, Tim,” Bill Kelly said as his mind drifted to the
avviso.

“The patriarch and his man in Africa, Bishop Yussotov, take a less moral view of the African problem. They want to do whatever is necessary to convert Africans to their church and away from ours. They are on the cutting edge of doing to the Church what they were doing until 1991 and the fall of Communism. Emulating their KGB agents, they will create armies of national liberationists and take countries over using terror tactics, covertly, in the name of Communism.”