The Vatican’s Asian Vexation

Asian churchmen have felt marginal to Rome for so long that they are now more likely to push for reforms like a married priesthood or the decentralization of Roman authority. One of the few Asian prelates to serve in the Roman Curia, Japanese Cardinal Stephen Fumio Hamao, regularly spoke out against an "excessively Westernized" church. Local bishops, he believed, should be given greater freedom "to adapt to the country's culture." In March 2006, just months after Benedict was elected pope, Hamao's Vatican office was suddenly merged with another department. If it wasn't exactly retribution, Hamao was also not going to be missed. He retired, leaving no Asians in senior Vatican posts, and died on Nov. 8. On Nov. 24 Benedict created 18 new cardinals who will be eligible to vote in a conclave that will one day elect the successor to the 80-year-old pontiff. Only one—62-year-old Indian Archbishop Oswald Gracias of Mumbai—is from Asia, giving the College of Cardinals a more Western cast than it has had for decades, and suggesting that the church's focus on Europe is unlikely to end any time soon.

© 2007