Black smoke

I gather that Obama did not win the first ballot.

I think it would benefit most reporters to spend 6 months out of the first world with only the electronic access the ordinary people have, so they could escape the US media immersion. Maybe that would help them with a little perspective--but maybe not. They write to an American audience, and it is easier to write to preconceptions than to explain what's really going on. Writing about what's really going on might involve trying to understand it yourself, and that can really slow down writing the story.

Yes, I'm thinking of the conclave reporting. I suspect that Catholics in Pakistan are a little more concerned about the Muslim "anti-blasphemy" riots than whether US nuns get to be priests. Even the well-known problems in the curia(*) tend to be taken out of context.

Probably the only reason for some of these issues to be on the radar at all for a bishop from the Philippines, is that the West controls much of the media.

I think they err in making the same person responsible for administration, pastoral oversight, and theological decisions. The jobs require different gifts. Administration requires a certain flexibility, ability to understand machinery, and will to get things done. Pastoral oversight requires more patience and empathy to correct and guide, preferably without a strong-minded "will to get things done"--that generally gets people's backs up. And theological questions need a good understanding, but holiness most of all--and a reluctance to be flexible with the truth.

Some of the commentators I've read/heard have focused on the "will to get things done" and perceived deficiencies in theology (generally about sex and women), and others concentrate on the requirements for holiness and hopes for a good theologian--and both sorts muse about it being time for a third world pope. The symbolism of a third world pope would be striking. Funny, though. I thought the Catholics were big on things not being symbolic, but the real deal.

(*)When asked how many people work in the Vatican, Pope John is alleged to have responded, “About half.” I wonder how many people know the companion quip. The story goes that someone once asked the Pope if it’s true that his people don’t work in the afternoon. “No, that’s not true,” Good Pope John supposedly replied. “My people don’t work in the morning. In the afternoon, they don’t even come in.”