The Next Pope Will be From Central/South America


After the next Pope is selected, anyone who might remember reading this can have a chuckle at how wrong I was. Just remember no license is needed to make predictions in religion or politics so I am qualified. 

The rule for selecting the next Pope is that the candidate must get 2/3rds of the over 100 Cardinals from many countries who meet in Rome for three or four days. I suppose every Cardinal comes to the conclave with his mind on troubles or problems back home and hopes the new guy will give him more help than the last one did. 

For sure there will be among the 100+ Cardinals some basic politics. That is, among the well-known Cardinals will be some who have made an impression, good or bad, on many others. There are many kinds of gatherings where one of them might have spoken. There will be networks of Cardinals passing along thoughts and impressions to others, "My friend whom I trust has another friend who said he chatted with Cardinal X and he was a nice fellow." 

One would have to guess the majority of the 100+ Cardinals will not have had a private conversation with the leading candidates. They will have impressions of each from many sources just as you and I do when we go to vote. A popular political theory is a thought passes through each of us, "If that person knew me, he/she would like me."  

My assumption is the entire world sees the U. S. as the great powerful ogre. Rome and much of Europe are also disliked, too much power for too long. Cardinals from these countries are out. Cardinals from Asia and Africa are too other world for the job at this point in time.

There is the well-known tension between the back-to-the Bible faction of the late Pope Benedict and the deal-with-falling-numbers-and-less-money of the Pope Frances faction. The link summarizes the changes needed for the realism Pope Francis has tried to address. They are the shortage of priests, the divorced and remarried, gay and trans and women in the clergy. Neither the factions opposed to solving these nor the faction overtly in favor will get their guy. Instead, Cardinals will have to vote for someone they think will give them a shot at success. 

The same dilemma was present last time and Francis from South America won. Reading a review in the link of the current players, it is easy to see the next Pope will be another Frances from South of the Border. Some Cardinals from there are smooth operators and know how to navigate through the maze of Catholic politics. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Who Suffers from a "Hardened Heart"

Image
Some years ago on this blog there was a discussion about what the Bible calls "The hardened heart." The "hardened heart" was the explanation given for why people like me cannot accept the tenets of Christianity. We are unable to believe there are floating spirits and gods or imaginary places people go when the die. Now, a prominent Christian preacher and author has given us a way to diagnose the "hardened heart." It contained some surprises.  Rev. John Piper, who spoke about the hardened heart, said we can see this in a person who lacks "ordinary tenderness and compassion." He went on to describe the characteristics of a person without the affliction of the hardened heart. A healthy person displays empathy and sympathy. Those with the hardened heart are like stone. Jesus wanted compassion for the poor. The hardened heart discussion referred to atheists only if they are sinners and then it was indirectly. Sin, Piper said, hardens one's heart a...
Read more

Young Women can see Bull$hit a Mile Away

Image
Republicans including their Forced Birth subgroup is bother by recent election results and polling. All show young women going to the left. A poll shows young women are 30% more likely to be very liberal than young men. The link advises the Forced Birth community to give young pregnant women an uplifting message. The message suggested is, "Buck up. You've got this. You can give birth and have a happy life." Another way of saying this is, "It will be OK if you miss work and/or are fired because of the birth. If you cannot make your rent payment, it's OK. Somewhere out there is another place to live. We don't know where but be optimistic."   This is an add on to the new version of the Forced Birth message, "We're for both the baby and the mother." They are not and never have been for the mother. Their message has always been to condemn women who have abortions. Now, the "thoughts and prayers" message, which costs no money, it the me...
Read more

Will the Complexity of Societies Empty Mother Earth

Image
Who is in charge of the huge arch of human experience on planet earth to see if humans are doing what it takes to survive over thousands of years into the future? The answer, of course, is no one. There are a few people looking at it and writing about it, but no central authority has the responsibility to guide human behavior and activity toward a sustainable path. The link points out a couple of interesting facts about we humans. We now think our first humans-like ancestors came into being about 300,000 years ago. That would make the number of generations of humans at about 15,000. That is, each of us has 15,000 grandparents who lived before us.  During nearly all of those 300,000 years, humans lived on a sustainable path. Unsustainability started only 10,000 years ago. That is when humans stopped walking around finding food and started living in one place by planting and growing foods. Prior to that, the same technology was mostly passed down from one generation to the next....
Read more