Two who may be candidates visited Thomas Aquinas
By Zeke Barlow
zbarlow@VenturaCountyStar.com
(April 18, 2005)
Perhaps the next pope will be the man who once prayed in
the shadow of the Topa Topa Mountains while the burbling Santa
Paula Creek filled the silence.
Or maybe he'll be the man who marveled at the fertile growing
fields of the Oxnard plain while zooming down Highway 101.
The next pope could be either man whom, after walking through
the oak-shaded trails of Thomas Aquinas College, the college
president considers a friend.
As the eyes of the world watch the Vatican conclave that began
today and will determine the next pope, the faculty at the
college outside Santa Paula will be waiting to see if the
next pope is a man who strolled their campus.
Cardinals Christoph Schoenborn and Francis Arinze, who have
been mentioned as being among the candidates to fill the papacy,
have spent time at the small liberal arts college.
Both told President Thomas Dillon of their affinity for the
school, where teachings are rooted around the Ògreat
booksÓ of Aristotle, Homer and St. Thomas Aquinas,
among others.
If either man was chosen as the next person to lead the more
than 1 billion Catholics worldwide, it could a boon for the
school.
"Certainly if the pope has been on our campus three
times, that would bring us more attention," Dillon said
of.Schoenborn, who gave a commencement speech and a talk in
May 2002 and dedicated a new residence hall at the school
last October. Arinze gave the commencement speech last May.
If either man is selected to lead the church, Dillon said,
he'll ask him to dedicate the new chapel after its 2007 completion.
The two cardinals' time at the school gave faculty and students
a chance to see the men behind the cloth.
Arinze wore simple, patched clothes when Anne Forsyth picked
him up from the airport in May 2004. The cardinal from Nigeria
traveled alone and carried an old Samsonite suitcase. His
letters to Dillon are always handwritten.
"There is something about him, a simplicity in him,"
said Forsyth, director of college relations. When they drove
by Oxnard's growing fields, he was glad to see where the people
who live in the sprawl of Southern California got their food.
At a luncheon later that day, senior Anne Neumayr was nervous
when dining with such an important man. When the soup course
came, Arinze dished up his sense of humor. Everyone was served
a red soup, but Arinze was given a green one. He looked at
his bowl, then the others, and the black cardinal deadpanned,
"Are you discriminating against me?"
He burst out in laughter and told everyone he needed a soup
with less sodium.
Dillon said that sense of humor and his ability to switch
between humorous and authoritative tones could serve him well
in the papacy.
Schoenborn also has that sense of a man of import, without
any pretense, Dillon said.
"At no time has he ever made you think he's an important
person," Dillon said. "He is a man who I think is
very humble, very smart and very personable."
When Forsyth was having trouble faxing a column Schoenborn
wrote to Austria, the cardinal stood beside her, trying to
solve the problem.
After the commencement, Dillon was driving the tired Schoenborn
back to the airport and Dillon realized he had to do the rosary
novena, a practice of saying the prayer for 54 days. Dillon
asked Schoenborn if he would pray with him. While the two
dashed down Highway 101, they recited the rosary.
"He doesn't put himself forward at all," said student
Thomas Waldstein, whose father runs the International Theological
Institute in Austria, which Schoenborn started. Waldstein
has met the cardinal dozens of times. "The way he talks
about things, he shows you the greatness and beauty of the
Catholic faith."
Nobody will know who the next leader of the church is until
white smoke billows from a Vatican chimney, signaling a decision
has been made. It could take as long as a week.
"Who knows what the Holy Spirit has in mind for the
good of the Church and the good of the world next?" wondered
Dillon.
But just maybe, as the next pope watches over his flock from
Rome, he'll be thinking of a little college across the world
in Ventura County.
This article originally appeared in the Ventura County
Star on April 18, 2005. Reprinted from venturacountystar.com
with express permission.
|
