How would you like to have a job where 1.1 billion people
have a vested interest in the decisions you make and the direction you
set? Where world leaders from every
continent are cooperating or not cooperating as you try to influence the
spirituality of their people. A job that
was first occupied by one of Jesus Christ’s best friends. The head of one of the largest religions in
the world that is trying to maintain its sense of identity and purpose in an
ever changing world. This is the job of
the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church.
On February 28, 2013, the Catholic Church enters the time of
Sede Vacante, meaning “the chair is empty”.
Sede vacante represented the time between Popes. Unlike the government of the United States,
which is never without a president, the Catholic Church will have a period of
at least 15 days without a leader. Even
as I am writing this, the Vatican is awaiting the remaining 5 Cardinals to join
the other 110 to begin Conclave.
Prior to Conclave the College of Cardinals may have some pre-meetings
to get to know one another and discuss the needs of the Catholic Church in
2013. Once Conclave begins the entire
process is top secret. Construction is
underway on the Sistine Chapel to install a false floor to hide anti-bugging
devices, the installation of stoves to burn the ballots each day, and insure
all accommodations are in place for the Cardinals.
The 115 Cardinals are sworn to secrecy during Conclave. They will be taken to and from the chapel by
bus and stay sequestered during the process.
They will not have access to the news, internet, or any other
communication device.
On the first day one vote is allowed. Each Cardinal writes the name of the person
they select on a slip of paper. The
votes are tallied. If someone receives
two-thirds of the votes, they are asked if they would accept the position, what
name they choose, and the ballots are burnt, sending white smoke through the
chimney to notify the world of the new pontiff.
If no one receives the required two-thirds, debate, voting and prayer
continues. Up to four votes may be
conducted each day. There is no limit to
the amount of time the Cardinals may take to decide the next Pope. That being said, no Conclave has gone over 5
days since 1831. It took the College of
Cardinals 3 days to decide on Pope Benedict.
While any single, Catholic male is eligible to become Pope,
more than likely the man chosen for the position will be one of the 115
Cardinals. While there is not a clear
cut favorite, many are expecting one of the following to be next in line:
Cardinal Peter Turkson from Ghana
Cardinal
Angelo Scola from Italy
Cardinal
Marc Ouellet from Canada
Cardinal
Tarcisio Bertone from Italy
Cardinal
Angelo Bagnasco from Italy
Cardinal
Leonardo Sandri from Argentina
What do you
think of the process to elect the Pope?
What qualities do you think are necessary to be a good choice for the
Catholic Church? What do you think are
some of the biggest issues facing the Catholic Church and the next Pope?
Charlie-The process seems pretty complicated and being locked in a room for how ever long it takes to get2/3 votes is a commitment. You need to trust and have faith in God. I think the big issues that may happen with our new pope is that
ReplyDeleteCharlie continued... electing a new pope could take days or years.
ReplyDeleteMargaret- I think that the process of choosing the pope is good and they have a good way of doing it but the down part is is that it could take years so hopefully it will only take a couple days. The qualities that you need to be our pope is that you need to be very christian like in your actions and words and you always have to worship God. I think one of the biggest issues is getting more people to become Catholic and overcoming the bad publicity and getting a more positive view on how the Catholic church is run.
ReplyDeleteIsaiah- I think the way of electing a pope is fine but it sure wouldn't be cool to be cut off from all communications. I hope it doesn't take years because I hear we want to have a new pope by Easter. I think a person to be voted as a pope needs to know the meanings of the bible. I think they should no all the scriptures and what they are calling us to do. I don't know many problems that the new pope could have but like you said the one person is leading 1.1 billion people
ReplyDeleteSam-I am fine with the current process because I don’t want to stress about it, also I think that the Cardinals make a good decision on who is eligible to be Pope. I think that it is a holy process, and I think that it is good that the Cardinals vote, this is a religious decision and I think that someone who knows what they are doing is appropriate for this decision. I think that the number one attribute that you have to have to become Pope is humility. If you are humble then you are willing to give yourself to God as the Pope. This also allows you to be the Pope and wear the title, but not shine in it as you would if you won an NBA Championship. As Pope it’s also good to be very selfless, insightful, divine, and well-schooled. But I don’t expect the Pope to be a prefect human being, he is still human and he still makes mistakes. Some of the challenges that the Pope and the Catholic Church face is obliviously the many threats that the Pope gets each day as being the physical leader of our church. Upon that, the Catholic Church has to make sure that each and every one who is a believer in Catholicism is loyal to the Church and therefore Jesus Christ. What I mean is that everyone goes to church every Sunday and follows the Commandments to the best of their ability. Things like signing out in mass and reminding yourself WWJD will make us better followers of Christ.
ReplyDeleteEmile-I think that the test is a worthy test to see if your comrades have faith in you and see God in you. The necessary qualities are reached for the new Pope are acceptable because it would at the least take 15 years or more to become a cardinal. one of the issues i hope we dont face is that we won't pick a pope for several months and as a Catholic its a weir thing not to have someone to look to when there is sorrow.
ReplyDeleteRobert Fritz- I think that the process to elect the Pope is a very careful process because with the job of just one person leading the Catholic Church is a hard one so the cardinals need to make sure and listen to God to tell them the right person to promote to become the Pope. The process is also very fair because to become the Pope you must usually meet the cardinals requirements which isn't that easy when there are about 400,000 people that could potentially become the new Pope. The kind of qualities of the Pope that gets elected should almost mirror Jesus or Mary. With that being said the Pope should have the confidence to lead, the willingness to forgive, and the smarts to make the best decisions. Another quality that the new Pope should have is the kindness to face the problems that will come with the job. Some of the biggest issues that are facing the Catholic Church would be most of the rules of the Church, but I guess that this reason is more of an opinion. I think that Bishops and other people of the Catholic church should be aloud to marry but in the process not forget the covenant that he/she made with the Catholic Church as well. One of the biggest issues that the new Pope will face will be getting used to being called the father and leading the Catholic church because all of that is an enormous responsibility for the new Pope. With all of that said it basically concludes the the process of electing a new Pope will be long and the Pope will have to have the courage to lead the Catholic Church.
ReplyDeleteMackenzie- I think that the process could not be better. keeping the votes and tally secret is a good way to insure the world that the cardinals are talking with God in secret. Burning the ballots is a good decision to make because if a ballot were to get out of the chapel some might think that this name is going to be the new pope.I think that you should go to church not every sunday but when ever you have the time and you should be nice all the time even to people who have done something seriously wrong to you or others. I think that a big issue right now is how far away some people are going from God with new songs and new electronics some people don't even think about God because of all the bad things that are in the media right now.
ReplyDeleteClaire- I think the process of electing a pope is a long, and thought out process. Some qualities that I think are necessary are that you should go to church at least once a week, if not more. You should also be very dedicated to what you do. Lastly, you should be a role model for all of your fellow cardinals. Some of the biggest issues facing the Catholic Church and our next pope are that people are very eager to see who their next pope is, and they become anxious. Similar to that, electing a pope could take a very long time, or a very short time. Those people might not know who their pope is until next year, or they might know tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteGraci- The process of electing the Pope is very long, but burning the votes to keep it secret and the black and white smoke coming out of the chimney determining whether a cardinal is elected to be the Pope is a great idea. Qualities that are necessary are you should put your faith, trust and hope in God, you should go to church at least once a week and to pray often. Some of the biggest issues facing to elect the Pope are how many votes you have to get to be the Pope which is 2/3. That process is very long and might even take more than a year or it could be short and we could find out who is the new Pope in a couple of days.
ReplyDeleteMadeline- I think that the process of electing a Pope is very good. I believe that they do a very good job of keeping the ballots secret, and how they tell us that there is a new Pope. I think that to become a Pope you should be a Catholic that is older than nineteen but less than seventy. Also that the person has to go through the process of being a Priest, Bishop, and a Cardinal. I think that some of the issues facing the Catholic Church and the next Pope are that there are not enough people willing to go through the process to become a Priest, Bishop, Cardinal, and possible a Pope.
ReplyDeletewelles- the process of electing a pope is good but complicated. it is good that they keep the ballots a secertet so that you don't know who might get 2/3 of votes. qualities that so one should have is faith in God and patients. a big issue is that it could take 1 day or 1year. no one knows.
ReplyDeletevictoria- I think the process of electing a pope is interesting how they have to wait in a room and take votes several times a day. I think the pope who gets elected should be trustworthy, honest, and make good decisions because lots of people will look up to him. I think the biggest issue is that to be elected pope you need to have 2/3 of the votes and that could take a long time or short amount of time and people don't like to wait.
ReplyDeleteAustin- I think the process is very well organized. I think the qualities a good pope should have are to be honest, kind, and lead your life setting a good example for everyone. I think some of the challenges the new pope will have to deal with are the corruption and bad choices that some priests have made which have given the church shame.
ReplyDeleteGrace- The process of choosing a new pope is very interesting and cool. I love the part when they either show black or white smoke from the chimney to state whether they have decided on the new pope or not. The major qualities that a great pope would need is loyalty, kindness, humbleness, faithfulness, great leadership, good communication and good people skills. One of the challenges that the Catholic Church faces is that the Cardinals have to make a big and wise decision on making the new Pope, and that they're going to try to pick the Pope on Easter Sunday, so that it'll be memorable and holy.
ReplyDeleteJack- pope Francis the 1 was elected today he is awesome. to have been in this experience is pretty cool because it has not happend in about 600 years and a good leader needs qualitys ike respect to the lord o mighty and the loyal and humble leadership skills
ReplyDeleteEmily- The process seems very confusing and complicated. Being a good leader is always important. You need to be understanding, modest, and honest. Without those qualities, the pope wouldn't be that great. The issues with electing the pope is that it could take days, months, or even years to decide who the new pope is going to be.
ReplyDeleteBen: it is am amazing experience knowing that we saw the pope resign and a new pope being elected i think pope francis is going to be an awesome pope .
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ReplyDeleteElizabeth The process of choosing a new pope is cool to be there. I think they could do it using more technolgy because that is a resorce that we have. Some qualitys needed to be a pope would probley be to be a guy, a bishop, and a Catholic. Some of the biggest issuses facing the church at the moment is spys. People that might want to break in and see this historic process.
ReplyDeleteKylee- I think the prossesss of electing a pope is long and complicated. Some qualites are being kind and genrous to others. Some issues might be that it will take a long time to elect a pope also that a lot of peole do'nt like any pope.
ReplyDeleteMckai- I think the proces is reasonable but it could possibly be better, I like it. I think someone with a serious attitude, good socializing skills, onset, and forgiving. I think the biggest issue is that easter is coming up the day I and many others get baptized. It is also holy week were every one prays and should be nicer to people.
ReplyDeleteHenry- I think that process is quite complicated and that we as the people don't really get it. Some good qualities in a leader for our church are loyalty, unselfishness, and of course faithful. I think that the largest issue in this process is how long it takes, days, weeks, months, or even years.
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