COMMENT Today, the world's 1.2 billion Catholics, including one million in Malaysia, will wait in deep prayer and earnest anticipation for the election of the new pope.

Tuesday, March 12, is the date chosen by the College of Cardinals to begin the conclave where the new Roman Pontiff will be chosen.

This afternoon, the 115 cardinals eligible to vote will enter the Sistine Chapel to take part in the election ballot until one man receives a two-third majority.

However long it takes, eventually the chosen candidate will be revealed to the thousands of pilgrims waiting outside in St Peter's Square in Vatican City, Rome.

NONE Malaysia, which established diplomatic relations with the Vatican just two years ago, is also watching developments in the Catholic hierarchy closely.

There are more than a million Catholics in Malaysia and the Catholic Church in the country has grown increasingly vocal on a number of controversial issues of late.

Bishop Paul Tan of the Malacca/Johor diocese stands out as a brave and respected voice from the Catholic community.

I read with interest a recent editorial in a national daily which stated that "it is not wrong to say that the Pope has to be even more diplomatic than world political leaders in charting the course of his office. It is indeed a heavy cross to bear".

Surely, we will never be able to comprehend the immense burden of the papal office.

The issues confronting the Catholic Church, from the baggage of history to the challenges of the future, are many. Heavy are the responsibilities for the man chosen to take up the cross after Pope Benedict XVI.

Church and politics

Benedict's decision to resign early last month prompted me and several of my former classmates to have an email discussion on the matter. We are all Sarawakian Catholics living in different parts of the world.

It started when our friend from Vancouver asked for our thoughts as the matter has been on his mind since the Pope's announcement.

He lamented the declining number of churchgoers among younger North Americans and Europeans.

He wrote: "In Vancouver, the diocese spent thousands in advertising to attract the lost flock. The church that I attend each Sunday is packed mainly by Filipinos and other Asians. This is sad.

"I hope the Church's hierarchy has the wisdom to choose the next Pope from Asia or Africa, if it is to remain viable. It seems the church is still very much controlled by the Italians."

In an immediate reaction, a friend in Hong Kong said he viewed an interesting discussion of the Pope's resignation on BBC but chose to ignore the comments from the politicians on the TV programme. We can only guess what the politicians are saying.

church christian in kuala lumpur 1 A priest in our group advised us to read the Old Testament in order to understand human nature better. He warned that wealth and materialism almost always draw people away from God. However, suffering draws people back to God.

On the local front, he said that it was unfair to blame some bishops if they do not take up issues of social justice and chose not to delve in politics.

Many prefer to concentrate on the spiritual mission - that is to get people closer to God, the Kuching-based priest explained.

Recently, Catholics had expressed their disappointment publicly at Kuala Lumpur Archbishop Murphy Pakiam for keeping quiet over the Bible-burning issue.

From Singapore, another friend wrote that bishops and the church must have a hand in politics.

"After all, politics determine policies which affect the common people," he pointed out.

"Jesus never taught us to be docile, sit back and be ridiculed when things went wrong. He chased the gamblers and cheats out of the synagogue and reprimanded the hypocrites."

A friend in Kuala Lumpur exhorted us all to pray that the cardinals who will gather together to elect the pontiff may be filled with the Holy Spirit and be enlightened to vote the person that Jesus Christ Himself had earmarked to be his new Vicar.

Benedict's decision to step down

As for me, I must salute Benedict's sincere and honest decision to step down from his high office. It was a historic decision which led to today's conclave to choose his successor.

I also believe that Benedict did not want to die in office, and wanted to spare the world the agony of watching him suffer on his death bed. How could we ever forget the pain we shared with Pope John Paul in 2005?

It does not matter to me who becomes the next pope - Italian, Asian, Canadian, American or European again. I stand corrected in stating that the church is a political minefield too and cardinals involved in horse-trading are not unheard of during the conclave.

christians praying church attacks At one time, Cardinal Jaime Sin was my favourite choice after John Paul first got seriously ill. The Archbishop of Manila was the only cardinal I had the chance to interview as a journalist. He was my hero for his role in rallying Filipino Catholics against the despotic Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.

Together with a group of Malaysian journalists, I sat down with him in Manila in 1987, a year after Marcos was ousted.

Unfortunately, Sin also died the same year as Pope John Paul II - in June 2005, two months after the Holy Father.

The new pope may or may not be elected today. If I remember correctly, it just took 24 hours for the cardinals to choose Benedict in 2005 while John Paul II was elected only on the fourth day of the conclave in 1978.

Whatever it may be, I'm confident that as soon as we see white smoke billowing from the chimney in the Sistine Chapel, the Catholic Church will move on well with the new pope.

As a Catholic, I believe and I have faith that will be so because no one or anything can destroy the church.

FRANCIS PAUL SIAH and his friends were all classmates at St Joseph's School in Kuching. He can be reached at sirsiah@gmail.com