VATICAN CITY: Cardinal Robert Sarah, 79, from Guinea, is in the spotlight as a top pick to replace Pope Francis, 88, who’s been hospitalized with double pneumonia since February 2025. Born June 15, 1945, in Ourous, a remote village, Sarah grew up poor under a griot mom—storytellers of West Africa—dodging a Marxist regime that blacklisted him. Ordained in 1969, he became Conakry’s archbishop at 34, defying dictator Sékou Touré, who died in 1984. A little-known gem: he once walked 70 miles barefoot as a kid to hear Mass, per his book God or Nothing. If elected by the 120–130 voting cardinals, he’d be the first Black pope of the 21st century—huge for Africa’s 41% Catholic growth since 2000, signaling a shift from Europe’s grip.
Sarah’s rise would be epic, but critics say the Vatican won’t let a Black pope happen, like they block women priests—a backward, women-hating relic, they argue. Rumors swirl that a Black pope might spill the Church’s dark secrets: priests raping boys from Africa to the U.S. In 2018, Pope Francis begged forgiveness in Ireland—where over 14,500 kids were abused by clergy since the 1940s, per a 2009 report—for decades of assaults and cover-ups. In Pennsylvania, a 2018 grand jury found 1,000+ kids raped by 300+ priests over 70 years. Globally, 3,428 priests were defrocked since 1989, per the National Registry, yet critics fear Sarah could expose more, like the 3,600 abused in Germany (1946–2014) or Argentina’s Provolo Institute horrors.
Catholicism isn’t Christianity, some say—it’s a masculine cult with a wild past. Take Pope John XII (955–964), who ran a brothel in the Vatican, or Benedict IX (1032–1048), a rapist who sold the papacy thrice. Alexander VI (1492–1503) poisoned rivals and slept around, while Urban VI (1378–1389) tortured cardinals to death. Sarah, a conservative who hates modernism, could either clean this mess or bury it deeper. At 79, his shot’s historic—but will the Vatican risk it? Question: Do You Think The World Will Get A Black Pope?
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