Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze, president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, delivers Pope John Paul II's message at the Millennium World Peace Summit, in this file phote of Tuesday, August 29, 2000, at the United Nations. (Photo: AP)

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) - Pope John Paul II promoted African bishops to the ranks of cardinals and gave them prominent roles at the Vatican, recognizsing the importance of a continent where crops may fail but the Church's harvest of souls and vocations has not ceased to multiply.

Many say an African pope now could anchor the Catholic Church among the world's poor - signalling its aim to lead the fight against inequality and disease and offering a hope of salvation in this world as well as the next.

Even as Africans mourn the loss of a champion in John Paul II, streets and churches are filled with speculation surrounding the possibility that the first non-Italian pope in several centuries could be replaced by the first black pontiff of modern times.

The name that keeps cropping up as a candidate is that of Cardinal Francis Arinze on Nigeria - a priest remembered for turning mission schools into shelters for starving refugees.

While John Paul did not increase the overall number of African cardinals from his immediate predecessors - there are 11 now compared 12 before John Paul was crowned - he has greatly boosted their profile by calling several to the Vatican. Arinze, for example, was entrusted with mediating interfaith relations - one of John Paul's favourite projects.

"John Paul strengthened Africa's role in the church," said Mario Aguilar, dean of divinity at the University of St Andrews. "John Paul gave the tools to the African chuches to become more central to the church."

Aguilar said that by giving Africans a greater Vatican role, John Paul "did increase the chances of seeing an African pope."

Former Anglican Archbishop and fellow Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu praised John Paul for speaking out against the evils of apartheid and seeking to unite humanity. He also called for the next pope to be African.

"We hope that perhaps the cardinals when they meet will follow the first non-Italian pope by electing the first African pope," Tutu said from Cape Town, South Africa.

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