Free Republic

Last night black smoke poured out of the Sistine Chapel smoke stack, leaving no doubt that a single cardinal was unable to reach the two-thirds of the vote needed to be elected the next Pope. In 2005, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger – according to a cardinal’s diary published in 2006 in the Italian magazine Limes – got 47 votes out of 115 on the first scrutiny, and the consensus around him grew until he overtook the two-thirds margin on the fourth vote and was elected Pope. The election lasted less than one full day. But this time around, will there be...

Journalists are floundering because they cannot see beyond the dichotomy of ‘conservative’ and ‘progressive’I am asked by a non-Catholic friend for comments on the conclave. It’s difficult to comment because the media interpret everything along the line of bipolar oppositions, and of course it’s much more complicated than that. But anyway, here is my five cents worth for those who are interested. 1. Do not believe anything along the lines of a conservative/progressive clash. From the point of view of the secular world, all the cardinals are conservative: there is just not going to be a pope who changes Catholic...