Odilo Scherer: 5 Facts about the Potential First Brazilian Pope

By Jake Horowitz
Policymic
March 4, 2013

http://www.policymic.com/articles/28248/odilo-scherer-5-facts-about-the-potential-first-brazilian-pope

Odilo Scherer 5 Facts About the Potential First Brazilian Pope

As speculation continues over who will be elected as the next pope now that Pope Benedict XVI officialy resigns on Thursday, Sao Paulo archbishop Odilo Scherer has emerged as a top contender, which would make him the first Brazilian pope ever if selected. Here are five facts about the top Latin American contender to succeed Pope Benedict.

1) He is from Brazil.

Scherer leads the archdiocese in Brazil, the world's largest Catholic country with a total population of 6 million Catholics. Being from Sao Paulo, Scherer is accustomed to dealing with social problems, as this city has 11 million people and faces high poverty rates, crime, and youth unemployment. Pope Benedict XVI named Scherer as the seventh Archbishop of Sao Paulo on March 21, 2007. In October 2007, the Pope announced he would make Scherer a Cardinal.

2) He is considered to be a moderate.

Scherer is considered to be theologically moderate. He is considered to be conservative within Brazil, but holds more centrist political views than Pope Benedict XVI, who opposed "liberation theology" in the Church in Latin America in the 1980s. Liberation theology is a leftwing movement which believe the Church should ally itself with the poor politically. Benedict called this theology "a singular heresy" but Scherer has been more moderate. He backed its focus on social injustice and poverty, even though he criticized it for using "Marxism as a tool of analysis."

3) He's staunchly against abortion.

Scherer reportedly once said that if Brazil's Supreme Court legalizes abortion for babies with anencephaly (a cephalic disorder), then what will be the next group "incompatible with life" to be eliminated?

4) He's active on Twitter.

Scherer has 20,000 followers on his account @DomOdiloScherer and he regularly comments on key issues in newspapers and on his website.

5) He's an evangelist.

Scherer believes there is an "evangelization deficit" around the world today, which is why Pope Benedict established a new division of the Roman Curia. Scherer said the Pope "brings all to understand that this [new evangelization] is an objective of his, and that it must be the attitude of the Church worldwide, to respond to the challenges launched by the present 'change of age in the history of humanity."