Reuters
From John Allen - Whenever there's big papal news in the air, my phone usually rings off the hook from media outlets in various parts of the globe. If the phone isn't ringing, therefore, it's a fairly reliable sign that the pope is currently flying below radar.
On the cusp of Pope Benedict XVI's maiden voyage to Africa, visiting Cameroon and Angola March 17-23, the silence from my phone is deafening.
While anything's possible, my sense heading into the trip is that barring some bolt from the blue, most news organizations are likely to settle for brief and generic accounts. If so, it will be both tragic and a journalistic miscalculation, for reasons I'll develop below.
First, let me outline the motives for the neglect.
In the first place: It's the economy, stupid. Airfare for the papal plane this time costs $7,000, and when you throw in six nights in overpriced hotels, food, fees for visas and accreditation, Internet time, and so on, news organizations are looking at $10,000 or more to send a correspondent as part of the papal party. Under any circumstances that's a hefty investment, but in the midst of a global depression, it's understandably more than some editors are willing to shell out. (I know of a few reporters who normally travel with the pope not making the trip for this reason, and I'm flying commercial, not on the papal plane, to hold down costs.)
In part, the Africa swing is the victim of bad timing. Just days ago, dates for Benedict's trip in May to the Holy Land were announced. Given the drama of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, combined with tumult surrounding the pope's decision to lift the excommunication of a Holocaust-denying bishop, the Israel trip looms as a far "sexier" story. I've already had conversations with TV outlets about coverage of Benedict in Israel; several of those producers were actually surprised to learn the pope is going to Africa.
In part, the lack of interest is simply because it's Africa. In general, news about Africa doesn't "sell" unless there's a calamity -- genocide, mass starvation, and the like. Paradoxically, the fact that Cameroon has enjoyed decades of peace, and that Angola ended its long-running civil war seven years ago, make them less compelling from a news point of view. If the pope were going to Darfur, it would be a different story.
Finally, there's the fact that the protagonist is Benedict himself. Four years into his papacy, most secular media outlets feel they have a read on him as a newsmaker: good for the occasional scandal, but otherwise a non-story. If there's no hint of controversy, the sheer pull of Benedict's personality isn't enough to galvanize interest. By way of contrast, if this were Barack Obama's first trip to Africa, you could pretty much guarantee saturation coverage.
That said, here are five reasons why I think the trip is actually a gripping tale to tell:
Africa is the future: The single most important Catholic story of the 20th century -- more consequential in the long run than the Lateran Pacts, Pius XII,
the Second Vatican Council, and even John Paul II - was the shift in the church's center of gravity from North to South. In 1900, just 25 percent of the
Catholic population lived in the southern hemisphere. Today that figure stands at 66 percent, or two-thirds of the world's 1.1 billion Catholics, and by
mid-century the southern share is projected to be 75 percent. As Auguste Comte reputedly once said, "Demography is destiny." ....
There are terrific stories to report: While in Cameroon, Benedict XVI will meet a delegation of African Muslims, offering his first comments outside Rome about
Christian-Islamic relations since his 2006 trip to Turkey. In Angola, he'll meet with movements involved in fighting for women's rights. The Angola
portion of the trip also takes Benedict to the world's eighth largest oil-producing nation, pumping out 1.9 million barrels per day of high-quality crude.
Angola fought a bloody civil war from 1975 to 2002 precisely over control of those resources. Cameroon, meanwhile, is home to one of the longest-serving
strongmen in Africa, President Paul Biya, who through intimidation and pay-offs has managed to stay in power since 1982....
At the level of showbiz, it's vintage casting against type: All by itself, watching the globe's most consummate old-world European try to play on
the African stage ought to be great theater. So far, Benedict has demonstrated a remarkable capacity to stretch when the situation demands it; witness his
bravura performances during his two World Youth Day outings, experiences crafted to suit the personality of his more exuberant predecessor, John Paul II. But
the challenges awaiting him aren't simply at level of stagecraft; substantively, the question is whether, despite his European baggage, Benedict will
"get" Africa. Case in point: Will the pope grasp that his fight against a "dictatorship of relativism" in the West is largely moot in
Africa, where the grass-roots reality is not shaped by secular indifference, but rather a highly competitive religious marketplace? In Africa, the main rivals
to the faith are repackaged forms of African traditional religion, exotic new cults, mushrooming forms of Christian Pentecostalism, and aggressively
proselytizing forms of Islam. Will this teaching pope be able to craft a lesson that speaks to Africa's experience, which in many ways is so different from
his own?...
Five reasons the papal trip to Africa is important
Benedict needs to show that he 'gets' Africa
The problem with first impressions, as the saying goes, is that you only get to make one.
As Pope Benedict XVI prepares for his African debut March 17-23, visiting Cameroon and Angola on his first swing through Catholicism's most dynamic "growth market," he faces a series of dilemmas:
- How to raise consciousness about the continent's travails without feeding African resentments that Westerners only report bad news;
- Signaling that despite his European baggage, the pope "gets" Africa - for example, that his crusade against a Western "dictatorship of relativism" is largely moot here, since the grass-roots reality is not secularism but rather vibrant religious pluralism;
- Keeping lines of communication open with his local hosts without glossing over a serious "democratic deficit" in their regimes;
- Encouraging the vibrancy of African Catholicism without turning a blind eye to its growing pains - including a sometimes shallow sense of Catholic
identity and the lingering tug of tribal and regional divisions.
Benedict needs to show that he 'gets' Africa
Cameroon journalist warns of
'cheap political points' from pope's visit
. See how Jesus does not leave us without an answer; he tells us one thing very clearly: renewal starts from within; you will receive a power from
on high. The power to shape the future is within you."
