This race issue is really amazing. Even as a Christian knowing that we all are created by one God, Black Pope, Black president……. Black. Please do not judge a human being by its color. Let us change our views toward blacks. Blacks are intelligent, beautiful, smart, funny, rich and poor. They are human beings! Please trust blacks and give them a chance.

This world is still beeing ruled, by a small proportion of die hard white, as i may put it. However a time is coming, when colour will not be consider as a basis for leadership.
After God has created the world. He sat down and looked and said everything that i have created is perfect.

If God be for us, who can be against us?

A Black man will surely be a Pope one day.

I wonder why Obama is called Black. To me he is half Black, half White. It is a case of a half empty /half full glass? Even then, if look back you find that the "white" part is many things – European, Irish, Norse, Vikings, celtic germans, Celtic Gauls and all the European people who imigrated to Americas. Is all that white? Okay...

How about a Jewish Pope.

Lord is greater than all of us one day,
one day we will have a black Pope no matter how many years it will take!

Obama is as white as he is black. Why does the American media insist on calling him the first black president or the first non-white president? BTW Jesus was born brown in Palestine.

Black or white should not be an issue when intergrity and loyality is concerned the next pope should be a clean and god fearing man whether black or white it doesnt matter, in away this is another error of bleeding racism by emphasising on colour than the acheivements and mental capabilities of individuals. Obama is as capable as all the previous presidents of USA and will fail where any othe president balck or white could have failed stop this race issue please.

I would like to see a Chinese or Mongolian pope. Hey, what about a Latin American Pope. No, wait; an Inuit Pope or a Pope from that little sliver of Russian territory (that used to be Prussia) between the baltic states and Poland.

I could care less if the pope was Black, white, brown, yellow, etc. As long as he is true to his faith, my faith. This is not about what the people want; it is about what God (for us believers) allows humans to do. Remember free will?

Anne and Darren you are absolutely right Obama is not a black.
Alessio V
Unlike Obama I am a black Roman Catholic Christian I fervently beleive in Jesus Christ and I see him in so many forms- he is black he is white he is brown he is alive and he teaches me to love everyone irrespective of race.
White or black Pope- Peter's succesion is guaranteed. God bless the world Ojong,Cameroon

To Bruce Rubin:
But we did have a Jewish pope. The first pope whom Jesus chose himself was Jewish – he's St. Peter or Simon Peter, the man who denied knowing Jesus three times, the man who decided to die upside down on the cross because he thought himself unworthy to be crucified right side up. One of our first Christian martyrs. Jewish by birth but Christian by choice. It doesn't matter what our color is; it's our faith and spirit that counts in the eyes of God.

I don't see any problem, as long he is a human being and works for the humanity

ah who cares? these priests have raped boys for the past 50 or 60 years. they are a nasty bunch of perverts. who cares who will be the next pope. in fact who cares about the catholic church or religion in general. wake up america. these priests and bishops, and cardinals are all sickos. if not not sickos they are just take take taking our money

Why not? If a German can be a pope, so can any man of any colour, why play God when He created all of us, different colours that we all are!

i dont care which colour the future of one of the pope would be.God created man in His image and so colour aint a big thing......am anxious to see a man made robot do some human jobs..i know its possible for people even to clone a person who would end up being a leader of any kind.

tambua,hamisi,kenya.

I still don't know why people care about the color of your skin or the place you come from. To me it doesn't matter, for all I care, what's important is that a person could deliver. In this case a possible black pope is real emminent possibility, why?, for as the bible states " we created in the same image and likeness of God". So it doesn't matter if the color of the skin is black or even if his nationality is not western all that matters is that the person in that position fulfills his role...

God created all man equal regardless of our physical appearances and attributes. As long as that man is a man of God and the Holy Spirit is present in his heart!

" The apostle Paul asked Church brethren why they would judge another since each person has to answer to God. He said we should rather judge ourselves " Romans 14:4,10

what about a chinese pope,colour doesnt come into it once u beleive in god ull be ok

You're forgetting that John Paul II was not a white man from the first world. He was a white man from the second world– Communist Poland– which was a huge step for the church in the midst of the Cold War.

Also, most Vatican-watchers know Benedict is just a placeholder between JP2 and the next big thing– who may just well be African–because of his advanced age. Remember, though, that there's never been an pope from the Western Hemisphere either, and with the enormous numbers of Latin American catholics and the PR coup that would be an American pope, Africans may just have to wait their turn...

It sure is refreshing to see such near-unanimity that color and nationality don't matter - and I'm not even Catholic.