Go here to read the story. Few things are more futile, or more fun, at least for PopeWatch, than attempting to war game a future conclave. PopeWatch has been right in his conjectures precisely once, when Pope Benedict was elected in 2005. There is a good reason why the Italians have this maxim: “He who enters the conclave as pope, leaves it as a cardinal.“
All this intrigue… I’d simply like to be able to again say:
“Is the Pope Catholic? Does a bear … ”
That’s all.
I’ll settle for a Catholic bear.
I remember Andrew Greeley in 1986 insisted he and his research team in 1978 had constructed a vector equation into which they fed known biographical data on the cardinals, that this projection generated a short list of the most likely selections. and that the top two were Cdl Luciani and Cdl. Wojtyla. Yes, I thought Fr. Greeley was making it up.
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I’m hoping for a Pope who issues carefully composed documents to clean up the messes made by Francis, works to appoint satisfactory bishops, sets the Holy See’s accounting and finance straight, liquidates any interest in actively managed businesses and secular real estate, reduces the headcount and the busy work undertaken by the various offices and dicasteries, abstains from traveling, and says very little beyond Sunday homilies delivered at the Vatican or around the Diocese of Rome. Homilies should be derived from the week’s readings and have a stereotyped format. The Pope can exhort the world’s bishops, but if the bishops are not doing the work, it does not get done.
Hopefully the next conclave doesn’t choose a moldy sponge:
WK Aitken.
Wow – there’s a pronouncement from Pope Francis that would have Our Lord having to take back: “The only way to the Father is through Me……”
How long, O Lord, how long………
I had a nightmare in late December 2017 about PF knocking Catholics (one lapsed, one struggling) off of chairs in his nearly empty meeting hall to make room for atheists, and was advised by a dear relative, may she rest in peace, that the dream reflected me more than it did PF. I look forward to the day when whether that assessment is true is no longer relevant.