White Smoke

I am sick, and am taking tomorrow off. And maybe I'll take Friday off. And I already have Monday off.

White smoke. Was that just yesterday?

I was in a meeting with campus ministers. When we heard about bells and white smoke, we pulled up the MSNBC site. I kept trying vatican.va, but it was totally slammed and there was no getting in.

We were watching live, but somebody watching on a different channel called us up. I didn't answer the phone, but I heard the name Ratzinger over the earpiece. We all sighed. Fr. P looked despondant. J said the f-word.

Then we all got up and went to a room where there was a tv. We watched his address from the balcony. The CNN translator kept dropping the ball, so I did the Italian and Fr. P did the Latin. I don't know a single person at work who was happy at the news (though I do suspect one or two). A lot of the students were disappointed too. I had been hoping for Rodriguez or Martini. Anyway, the most moving sight to me was the shot of Romans running down the Via della Conciliazione at the sound of the bells all over Rome. It looked like the start of the Boston Marathon.

The isht started flying on the music ministers list I belong to. The liberals opened with "this is the worst decision ever." The conservatives responeded with "go join the Episcopalians." It's ironic to me that the conservative Catholic response is the same as the non-denominational Christian response--if you don't like it, go somewhere else. Anyway, the conservatives total lack of theology started showing. Not that I care for high theology--I'm much more a fan of the common denominator.

So whatever. After work I went to dinner at a Lebanese restaurant with J, and then we went and saw Sr. Helen Prejean. If you haven't seen her, she is AMAZING. She gave some insight to the stories in her books; her main point is that Americans will come around but you have to bring them there; if you just say 'capital punishment, yay or nay' Americans will all say "yah, kill 'em, they deserve it!" but if you take them through the process it's just intollerable.

Somebody asked her how she felt about the white smoke; she reaffirmed her gratitude for John Paul II for closing the loophole. She had the same wories as we all do about this new pope, but she'll wait and see.

She is much funnier than Susan Sarandon.

What else is there to talk about? I don't care, I'm sick. I'm going to bed.