http://www.beliefnet.com/story/48/story_4829.htmlhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/pope/story/0,12272,1055080,00.html>Guardian snip (talking about Nigerian Cardinal Arinze)
If he does, the world will devour every detail about this stocky Nigerian - that he spent his early years in the countryside outside the Catholic faith; that he loves tennis and football; that he hangs African masks on his apartment walls; that he thinks Muslims, Buddhists and Jews can go to heaven; and that he stopped taking sugar in his tea during the Biafran war.
For many, the most compelling detail would be his race: a black man with more international influence than many white prime ministers and presidents. As pope he would wield a unique blend of spiritual and political power, able to mobilise the opinions of up to a billion Catholics and sway the policies of nation states.
It has been quite a journey from the baked red earth of Eziowelle, a village in south-east Nigeria, to the marbled halls of Rome, where Cardinal Arinze, 70, is the prefect of the congregation for divine worship and the discipline of the sacraments, a post which puts him in charge of liturgy, and number four in the Vatican hierarchy.
"It has been a meteoric rise," said Gerard O'Connell, a Vatican analyst who this week published a book of interviews with the cardinal, called God's Invisible Hand. "The guy is is very bright and astute and able to communicate in simple language. He has a great sense of joy."
>snip