A leading Jesuit priest, arguing that the papacy is too focussed on a decrepit and jaded Europe where the Catholic Church is in a slump, is advocating the election of a Cardinal from Latin America as the next pope.

According to Father Michael Campbell-Johnston, a Briton who has served widely in the Caribbean and Latin America over many years, a pope from the Third World would “bring fresh air and a new look” to the papacy” and would direct world attention to what he saw as a large disparity in wealth and justice between poor and rich countries.

“The massive net transfer of money and other resources from a poor Third World to a wealthy First World is surely the major scandal and disgrace of our age,” said Father Campbell-Johnston, who is currently on temporary assignment in Barbados as the Roman Catholic priest of St Francis of Assisi Church, Mount Standfast in St James parish.

“As long as it persists, there can be little hope for a peaceful, let alone non-violent future.”

He said that the Catholic Church has, for a long time, been preaching this message and seeking to put a human face on globalisation.

“We now require a pope who will give a clear lead in this task, crucial to humanity’s survival, helping Catholics and others of good will to translate words into actions,” said Campbell-Johnston, who spent some years at Jesuit Headquarters in Rome where he was a personal adviser to former Jesuit Superior, Father Pedro Arupee.

“This is why he should come from a Third World country, and specifically Latin America, where issues of poverty and justice figure so strongly in the faith of ordinary people,” he added and named as his choice to succeed John Paul II, Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, the archbishop of Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras.

Following is the full text of Father Campbell-Johnston’s assessment made available to the Sunday Observer.

THE recent batch of Cardinals created on Tuesday (October 21) by the pope fits, as the media have not been slow to point out, the conservative pattern of most of the others he has created over the past 25 years. But the one thing a Pope cannot do under the present dispensation is nominate his successor.

Evidence suggests that the Spirit blows freely during conclaves and is capable of producing surprises. John XXIII was elected at the age of 77 as a transitional pope who would change nothing.

But he summoned the Second Vatican Council which set in motion the greatest changes the Church has seen in modern times.

In October 1978, I was standing in St Peter’s Square with thousands of others watching the white smoke billowing out of the Sistine Chapel chimney, presaging the election of the first non-Italian pope in 450 years. Astonished, like everyone else, we asked: “Ma chi e?” (but who is it?)

Now it is surely time for a pope from the Third World to bring fresh air and a new look to a papacy too centred on an old and tired Europe where the institutional church is in such decline.

Latin America accounts for more Catholics than any other continent, with Brazil being the largest country in the Church, both in number of Catholics and bishops.

And the faith has been implanted there for over 500 years. But, more important than statistics, is the quality of that faith.

In the two great conferences at Medellin (1968) and Puebla (1979), the bishops of Latin America took a bold stand in favour of the poor and oppressed.

By their call for “the conversion of the whole church to a preferential option for the poor with a view to their integral liberation”, their support for basic Christian communities, and their determination to fight against unjust social structures, they set the Church on a new course which would inevitably bring it into conflict with those whose vested interests were threatened but also give it a credibility with others who had nothing.

Obviously not all heeded the call, but many did and offered their lives for it. The outstanding example of Archbishop Romero in El Salvador was matched by thousands of others throughout the continent. And the call itself remains valid and just as much needed today, or even more so, than 30 years ago.

It is increasingly obvious to many that the current model of globalisation in the world is deeply unjust since it is increasing poverty rather than alleviating it.

As the 2003 UNDP Report points out, people in 54 nations, in varying degrees under the sway of the so-called Washington Consensus, are poorer now than they were a decade ago.

The massive net transfer of money and other resources from a poor Third World to a wealthy First World is surely the major scandal and disgrace of our age. As long as it persists, there can be little hope for a peaceful, let alone non-violent, future.

Hence the protests at Seattle, Cancun and wherever the ‘Group of 8’ industrialised nations, together with the international organisations they control — World Bank, IMF, WHO — decide to hold their meetings.

What is needed is a strong international voice to focus these concerns and encourage people to understand that an active commitment to justice, even on a world level, though many of its applications will be local, should be an essential part of any genuine religious faith.

The Catholic Church has long been preaching this message and seeking in various ways to put a human face on globalisation. We now require a pope who will give a clear lead in this task, crucial to humanity’s survival, helping Catholics and others of good will to translate words into actions.

This is why he should come from a Third World country, and specifically Latin America, where issues of poverty and justice figure so strongly in the faith of ordinary people.

In the highly unlikely event of my being named a Cardinal, my vote would go to the Archbishop of Tegucigalpa (Honduras), Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga.

I knew him in the past as someone deeply concerned with justice issues and, at that time, with the Salvadoran refugees struggling to survive in two huge camps in his then diocese of Santa Rosa de Copan in eastern Honduras.

I believe he fulfils admirably the conditions outlined above. He is 62, speaks several languages, including Italian and, as general-secretary then president of CELAM (Latin American Conference of Bishops), has had wide administrative and international experience.

Most important of all, he does not seem to be afraid to speak his mind. But are these the sort of gifts the other Cardinals, led by the Spirit, will be looking for? Only time will tell.