Rite and Reason: John Paul II's successor can make his own mark in history by lending his moral voice to the campaign for the eradication of global poverty, writes Justin Kilcullen of Trócaire.
John Paul II grew up under an oppressive communist regime, and that knowledge surely affected his later strong stance on rights-based development when he assumed the mantle of Pope in 1978.
His life's work always maintained a solid commitment to raising the issues of poverty and injustice worldwide and he repeatedly urged the international community to play its part in addressing the root causes of that injustice.
Trócaire's work was greatly influenced by his approach and his commitment to human rights, democracy, fair trade, debt, aid and poverty.
But unless the nations of the world are truly determined to tackle the problems of the poorer countries, and Africa in particular, the status quo will remain. In the modern world, human institutions are responsible for more suffering than so-called acts of God.
As plans are under way for the long overdue reform of the UN, the moral authority of the new pope should be a great advantage in compelling wealthy industrialised nations to tackle the issue of world poverty.
Let us remember that at the richest time in our history in economic terms we are living in a world where over 800 million people go to bed hungry every day; where somebody, usually a child, dies from hunger every 3.6 seconds.
Almost three billion people have no clean water and sanitation and more than 30 million people in Africa are infected with HIV/Aids. Poverty in the developing world also means that 13 million children die every year due to malnutrition or preventable diseases.
As was pointed out recently in the Tablet: "We rage against God over the deaths of 150,000 people [in the tsunami] - but where is the rage against the economic structures that condemn 800 million people to survive on less than $1 a day?"
It has also been repeatedly pointed out - to little avail - that Africa faces the equivalent of a tsunami every two weeks.
The new pope could become the moral voice behind the global drive to Make Poverty History that is so apparent this year.
The issue of Africa and poverty is the leading moral and ethical question of our time.
How can the world stand by in good conscience and let this man-made tragedy unfold while the society in the north wallows in consumerism?
Catholic teachings on social justice demand that the church lead the way in helping the world's oppressed.
The new pope must tackle, as did his predecessor, the issues of debt, unfair trade and levels of development aid. His moral voice should be used in the fight against corruption, focusing not only on the corrupted but the corruptors, too often major western corporations seeking an advantageous but unfair foothold.
He must take up the call of John Paul II for solidarity with the world's poor and for the international community to "denounce the existence of economic, financial and social mechanisms that accentuate the situation of wealth for some and poverty for the rest".
The UN's multi-annual development goals are unlikely to be achieved within the original target of 2015. John Paul II pointed out that governments repeatedly failed to honour their promises on aid for development, to resolve the question of the heavy foreign debt of African countries and to give those countries special consideration in international commercial relations. This is the reality a new pope must face.
Should he come from a southern country, he may have an affinity with the poor that those from the north could not know. An African Pope would certainly bear witness to the suffering of that continent. But whoever assumes the mantle of John Paul II will have the opportunity to shape the new century in a manner that would resonate for future generations as well.
In 1971 the Synod of Bishops meeting in Rome stated that: "Action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world fully appear to us as a constitutive dimension of the preaching of the Gospel. . . of the church's mission for the redemption of the human race and its liberation from every oppressive situation."
In taking up this challenge, the new pope will truly be an evangelist for the 21st century!
Justin Kilcullen is director of Trócaire.