I’m not religious but I do feel some excitement (especially after watching that movie called “The Conclave” on Netflix during the past weekend) that tomorrow 122 wee pompous pious white caped funny hat wearing horses will line up at the starting gate of what is know as the conclave within the Sistine chapel where like a sequestered jury they will quibble and squabble then elect a new Pope.
Will the next big man be a progressive, a liberal or follow the conservative direction? Maybe the papacy will return to its pizza and pasta guzzling roots, perhaps another European or South American just like we departed Frankie Boy…or an Asian or African?
Whoever wins in the square ring of the Sistine during the follow days I hope they don’t kowtow to the Chinese Communist Party like the last one and that the Sino-Vatican agreement gets thrown in the stove with the final ballot papers.
The human rights crisis in China was conspicuous by its absence from the dearly deid wee bar of soap Frankie’s prayers and reflections during his term although he did like to voice the more fashionable concerns such as Gaza, Sudan and Yemen… yet never heard him send up his public prayers and messages about atrocities in Tibet, the crackdown in Hong Kong or the Muslim Uyghurs who are facing true genocide (pro-Palestine supporters may need to look up the word “Genocide” is a dictionary) let alone any outcry about the Catholic clergy in China including Bishop James Su Zhimin who disappeared 27 years ago and is believed to be held in a Chinese detention centre.
There are four Brits in the running but unfortunately none as Scottish since our very own Eminence Keith O'Brien resigned from his public role in the Catholic Church in 2013 for his “fondness” of children then was recalled to Planet Ork in 2018.
Let’s watch out for Pietro Parolin of Italy, Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle and Luis Antonio Tangle of the Philippines…don’t know what the odds are but one of these wee ponies are perhaps worth a flutter each way.
Now I’m no expert but my money is on Pietro Parolin to get his furry cassocked arse first over the finish line …so let’s see…let the battle commence!!
