You've put more thought into this than I have, clearly.

To get my support back, the Church is going to have to make some pretty big changes, starting with turning every single document related to any priest abuse over to the authorities and compensating the victims, then turn an eye towards internal reform.

Basically, I want the Episcopal Church with a Pope... I'd declare myself to be Episcopal if one of the things I respect and value about the Church is its subsidiary institutions like Catholic Charities.

Sounds about right to this cradle Catholic. :D

My mother is running a blood drive at our Church right now. She is dying to know who it is, but can't watch! There are two that I'm not enthusiastic about, but can't say for fear of jinxing!

(I find it funny that I'm worried about jinxing something to do with religion)

Not really -- I'm just, as I said above, a churchgeek (and a Presbyterian one at that) who is repeating speculation from someone who seemed know what he might be talking about. He thought they were the front-runners, and a quick election more than likely meant one of them, while if it went past tomorrow afternoon, it mosr likely was not one of them.

These are the predictions my sources said also...

*anxiously awaiting the name*

I'm kind of like Kevin except I took the leap to the Episcopal church after I married my uberWASP husband.

I wonder what name the new Pope will take? I’d like to see him take John Paul III. I’m partial to John Paul II because he was Polish.

My maternal grandma had a picture of him hanging in her kitchen and it said niech zyje nasz ojcze (Long live our father) at the bottom . She’d tell me I’d better have good table manners because the Father could see me!

Can I tell a joke I heard on the radio this morning? It went something like this:
The Papal Conclave is still meeting, and we'll be able to tell what's going on by the color of the smoke rising from the chimney. If it's black, it means no Pope yet. If it's white, it means they've elected someone. If it's gray, it means that they're burning evidence.

I know it's wrong, but it made me laugh

New Pope's Name
 

I was thinking John Paul III might be an option, but that's a lot to live up to in terms of JPII's personal popularity.

I'm watching the balcony cam at abcnews.go.com/live and anxious at every little movement of the curtains, even though I'm also a person who has fallen away.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, Argentina

Pope Francis I. I kinda like it!

Pope Francis I!

Meaning the predictions I relied on were totally off, lol.

Interesting that a Jesuit chose the name Francis.

ETA: And Kevin, he may not be Italian, but he's 76.

His parents were Italian, so maybe Kevin gets 1/2 credit?

Maybe after St. Francis Xavier?

No, I'd say that's 3/4 credit. :D

Maybe so -- I didn't think about that. Having more interaction with Franciscans than Jesuits, my brain went straight to St. Francis of Assisi.

That's what I was thinking too.