That Pope-y Change-y Thing

It’s not everyday that we find ourselves Popeless. What does a Popeless world look like? At the risk of coming off completely sacrilegious and materialistic, it looks like this:

I’m not a Catholic though I do suffer a bit of Catholic-envy- I love a ritual- but this whole Popeless phenomenon is pretty fascinating. Rome is all a twitter (quite literally, with even some Cardinals tweeting in) as the College of Cardinals prepare for their Papal Concave to name the next Pope. Meanwhile the streets and souvenir shops of the Eternal City are buzzing with fire sales of Pope Benedict keepsakes and memorabilia. I’m a sucker for a Popener. When I lived in Italy as a student, I actually stood in St. Peter’s Square as the Pope blessed the crowd while holding out about 30 Popeners. I gave out Papally blessed Popeners as gifts for years- big hit. But let’s get serious here, you’d better get your Pope Benedict Soap On A Roap it while it lasts because these goods are going going gone, just like dear Benedict himself who has already hightailed it helicopter-style out of Rome. He’ll be back to live out his days within the Vatican but for now he’s outta there. The Gammarelli tailors are busy making three different sizes of Papal robes in the hopes that one of them will fit the next leader of the Church, and an online Papal betting bonanza has hit full stride. Sites like paddypower.com are taking bets on everything from who will be named the next Pope (Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana is the odds on favorite at 5/2 with our own Cardinal Sean O’Malley not so terribly far behind at 25/1), to the length of the Papal Concave, to how many ballots will be held and bets on when the next Papal resignation will happen. Seriously. Today’s stats:

Holy Concave! I’d love to be a fly on the wall in the Sistine Chapel when the voting begins. Can you imagine the politicking going on within Vatican City. Those Cardinals really know how to bring the drama. While some refuse to speak to the press, others are media darlings, some are even blogging (read Sean O’Malley’s blog here). However, once the Conclave begins it will most likely be mum’s the word for all Cardinals involved. And the world will be waiting with bated breath. Those lucky enough to be in Rome during this history making event can convene outside St. Peter’s to watch the black smoke rise from the Vatican signaling the ballots being burned until finally… the white smoke appears announcing that the Cardinals have made their decision. It’s all so Hollywood- you can’t write this stuff. Dan Brown wishes.

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