Catholic Peas or anyone following the Pope election

I'm sorry, I know this ventures into sacrilegious territory, but I do so want Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa to be selected, just because I love his name. Pope Pizzaballa has a nice ring to it. And yes, I do know they select a papal name once elected.

I'm sorry, I know this ventures into sacrilegious territory, but I do so want Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa to be selected, just because I love his name. Pope Pizzaballa has a nice ring to it. And yes, I do know they select a papal name once elected.

I wanted to pop in for a bit of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon type thing.. lol

One of the Cardinals (Timothy Dolan) is on his way to Rome to begin the selection of the new Pope.  As a Cardinal, he is potentially eligible to be selected.  HIGHLY HIGHLY doubt that would happen, but my trivia is that he went to the same school as I did (although a bit before me and I didn't know him) he mentions our school quite often 

I took the "s" off.. I certainly don't want to ruin anyone's day.

I was raised serious catholic - schools all the way etc but left.

I'm shocked by the amount of attention this is getting. And I will leave it at that!

papersilly - i am also curious as to who they will chose. I’m not thinking names, but personalities and qualities. Looking back at the popes of my life time, it seems they have sort of alternated between pastoral and theological candidates. Francis was strongly pastoral, as was JPII, while Benedict was more academic and a strong theologian. Does this point to the election this time of a stronger theologian? If so, then Parolin is a possibility. If they want to continue with someone pastoral, Tagle is a strong candidate. Which probably means it will be someone completely different

As a cradle Catholic, I find this process fascinating and the best of the best with our pomp and circumstance.  I'm here for it! It is widely discussed in my family and there's lots of speculation.  My parents' former priest (he has since died) was an assistant to Benedict way back when, long before he became pope.  The old priest worked on doctrine issues at the Vatican.  Benedict was a bit of a stickler about doctrine.

The first day is a lot of the old rites.  Rules/guidelines are laid down and Mass is celebrated.  There's a lot to get through  before that first vote, which is why there's only one vote on the first day.

monklady123 Once a Catholic, always a Catholic. Unless you were excommunicated.

It will be interesting to see who will be elected (not selected, LOL!) I forget if it's 80 of the cardinals or 80% of the cardinals who became so under Francis.  How many will be loyal to his view and how many will go back to Benedict's ways? Of course, not all of them are good with modernization (when I taught CCD, I always said The Church was 2,000 years unimpeded by progress.) And the rising Catholic population in Africa is largely conservative. And there is a large, outspoken group who never believed that Francis was the true pope and want to go back to the dark ages.