And Who are YOU backing for Pope?

What is this nonsense?

“I back Cardinal-so-and-so for the Papacy!”

“I’m rooting for O’Malley!”

“We need an African!”

“No, no. We need an Asian!”

“You are all wrong. What we need is a South American Pope!”

“We need reform! Women priests, male nuns, more centralization, less centralization, more power for women, “power to the laity!”, this is the fix needed! And a democratic church, as well!

The news outlets daily tout this one and the other as the ”front contender” — as though the holy conclave assembling in Rome this week were the World Wrestling Federation or the NFL in the playoff season. We are told of "warring factions" within the Vatican and power struggles between "progressive" and "conservative" cardinals, and all against a shadowy backdrop of conniving cabals and scandalous coteries.

Conspiracy! Collusion! Corruption! — anti-Catholics cry … and even some Catholics … yes, even some priests! The news outlets will always find an oddball, a dissident, a “specialist”, a de-habited “nun”, and “so-and–so who has astutely followed these things for 25 years”, this “expert” and that to predict the likely outcome and the bitter infighting preceding it.

"Stupidity" in the Face of God

“Sapientia hujus mundi, stultitia est apud Deum” … “The wisdom of this world is foolishness [stupidity] before God,” Saint Paul forewarned us. (1 Cor. 3.19) And time and again God has proved His point. And still we clamor for pundits, for sages, for those who best and most vociferously represent our views, our choices.

The Holy Who?

We forget that while men are the means to nominate the next pope, they do so under the guidance of the Holy Ghost — Who ultimately makes the choice — often flying in the face of our own expectations or predilections.

So What Should we Pray?

What Christ taught us to pray! “Thy will be done — on earth as it is in Heaven!” Not “my will” or “your will”! To cooperate with, and not contend against, the Holy Ghost — that is our duty at this time and at all times: to pray that the Father’s will be done, in the Name of Jesus Christ, and through the power of the Holy Ghost.

So cease with this madness, this insolence, this stultitia, this “stupidity”. Is not willing against God the very nature of sin? Is not the conflict of your will with the will of God the radix malorum, the root of all evil in your life? And still you persist!

He will choose whom He wills, not whom you will, foolish man … and this despite your “outrage” or “disappointment” as you summarize your own wisdom before the media as either the “expert” or "the man in the street”… which, you will recall, is stupidity before God.

Perhaps you cannot cease from being a fool — stupid — but restrain yourself before the world, for as the old proverb goes: “It is better to be silent and thought fool, than to open ones mouth and remove all doubt.”