I am right now watching the opening of the Conclave.

[Matilda]

Very impressive indeed, but I have never been so nervous about the
election of a pope. There is so much at stake, I do pray they get
it right.

I have just one other prayer: please, God, not Ratzinger.

[CBHagman]

1. You have a lot of company in that prayer.

I have been eagerly reading all the coverage (and all the profiles of possible successors to John Paul II) but cannot watch the opening of the conclave. Do keep us posted if you see anything interesting...

[Matilda]

2. They're all just swearing the oath of secrecy,

and I imagine after that the TV crews will have to leave.

The comment has been made that at this stage there appears to be a
polarization between the followers of Ratzinger and those of Martini.
Neither may get elected, but it's believed they both wield great
influence.

I pray that Martini will prevail!

On Edit: Yes, the oaths have been sworn, and the doors are about to
close. It's now nearly 1.30 a.m. here, so I guess by the time I
wake up in the morning, you may have witnessed the first black
smoke.

[CBHagman]

3. You're in Australia, right?

I'm in the middle of my workday as I write this. Have a good sleep and dream of better days!

[DemBones DemBones]

4. National Catholic Reporter did an article on Ratzinger and

what a Ratzinger papacy would be like. Here's one part of it:


Better Bishops

Many Vatican watchers believe that one weakness of John Paul’s pontificate was his episcopal appointments. Some have been spectacularly bad, such as Wolfgang Haas in Switzerland, Hans Hermann Gröer and Kurt Krenn in Austria, and Jan Gijsen in Holland. Bellicose and divisive, these bishops destabilized their respective dioceses, countries and bishops’ conferences. Krenn, for example, recently resigned in disgrace following sexual scandals in his seminary in Sankt Pölten.

In 1985, the pope’s personal secretary Stanislaw Dziwisz, a friend of Krenn, told the Congregation for Bishops that the pope had Krenn in mind as the new archbishop of Vienna. Ratzinger actually blocked Krenn’s appointment. Ratzinger knew that Krenn would be a disaster in a high-profile forum such as Vienna.

Given his long years of evaluating potential prelates (he serves on the Congregation for Bishops), Ratzinger knows the backgrounds of potential appointees, and would be able to spot potential problems. Backdoor channels would be less likely to generate surprise picks.

While Ratzinger’s appointments would be solidly conservative, they would also generally be men of intelligence and administrative skill.



There was more in the article that was encouraging, though Cardinal Ratzinger would not be my choice, either.

http://www.nationalcatholicreporter.org/update/conclave/pt041605b.htm

[Matilda]

5. I'm afraid nothing could sell me on Ratzinger.

I found I really did have quite a knot in my stomach as I watched,
knowing how much the choice of these men will affect our lives from
just a few days on.

That said, it was an amazing sight - we've never seen the
opening of a Conclave on television before, at least not in
Australia. The sea of red moving slowly into the voting chamber
with the choir singing the Litany of Saints was quite beautiful.
Although it came on very late on BBC World Service, I just had to
sit up and watch till the end.

Now it's nail-biting time.

[Stunster]

6. Why Ratzinger gets so much attention

The media here as elsewhere simply don't know. But saying "We haven't a scooby" doesn't make for good copy.

Ratzinger makes for good copy, and it gives them a chance to highlight
for the umpteenth time the hobbyhorses of braindead journalists
writing about Catholicism....


"Joan, a 45-year-old divorced Catholic lesbian tells us that even though there's no chance of getting pregnant when having sex with Jennifer, her partner of four years, they still use a condom anyway as a way of expressing their opposition to the Vatican's rigid stance on contraception. Says Joan with a laugh, 'And if I still managed to get pregnant, I'd have an abortion just to show that I don't give a hoot what some celibate old child-abuser in Rome thinks I should do with my body.' Joan, who studied theology at Berkeley in the 1980s, feels that Mass should be celebrated using homemade cookies and that the pope should stop talking about Jesus so much....."

If you want a different take on who's winning or losing, here's one....

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,15012475-2,00.html