Separation in Church Surfaces With Pope’s Death

While the Pope’s death has revealed the different approaches within the church, it is noted that the profound differences of opinion are occurring between those cardinals, who are pro reformist, who want to provide more authority to local churches, and those of the centralists.

The centralist group led by German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger opposes the reforms claiming that the Christian doctrin will be violated and there will be violations in the administration. On the other hand, the group who would like to see the reforms say that they do not have any vocal rights within the central administration because it is mostly composed of Latin Americans.

The Latin American segment has the largest Catholic population that defends having equal power and demands the increase of power to local churches. Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga (Honduras), Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi (Milano), Cardinal Edward Michael Egan (New York) are some names among this group.

A secret cardinal, whose name was not revealed and 118 cardinals within the Cardinals College, will have the task of selecting the new Pope.

The division of cardinals according to the continents in the New Cardinal College is as follows: Europe, 58; Asia, 11; North America, 14; Latin America, 21; Africa, 11; and Oceania, 2. Italy who is represented in the college by 20 cardinals, is the country most represented.