Quote:
Originally posted by AKA2D '91
It's going to be interesting. I vaguely remember the passing of the other Pope, as you have stated in '78. I was 6 years old. I was kind of  that the services were on a Saturday morning. I missed my seeing my Saturday AM shows: cartoons, Fat Albert, and American Bandstand. 
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LOL. I felt the same way when they did the Watergate coverage.
Back to the Papal selection, I feel that almost anything is possible. I remember reading many years ago that one of the Pope Gregorys (sp?) was actually from Africa. I do realize that this wasn't recent because PJPII was the first non-Italian Pope in more than 450 years.
I do agree that the next Pope will be similar to PJPII. After all, it was he who appointed most of these Cardinals and he made sure that they were traditionalists too. I don't see a Vatican III on the horizon with this bunch. Only 3 of the 117 eligible to vote were Cardinals when PJPII was selected. PJPII also created the most diverse College of Cardinals in history. Almost half of the College is now represented by Cardinals not from Europe.
The only Cardinals that I heard may be excluded, per MSNBC commentators, are Americans. It is felt that America is too powerful and to have an American Pope would be too much. (It sort of reminded me of the negatives of having a Roman Catholic U.S. President. Kennedy was supposed to be the Pope's sock puppet.)
Regarding term limits, it's interesting that that was mentioned. Bishops have to retire after a certain age and just one factor of the priest shortage. I don't know if I am for the Pope having a term limit. I really need to think about that.