We have a pope!

Very quickly. I’m thinking Ratzinger, whom I predicted would NOT be pope. It would not be unusual for me to be wrong.

K-Lo at the Corner reminds us that today is the feastday of St. Leo IX, German pope.

Have we today elected another German?

I keep thinking of that moment at JPII’s funeral, when the crowd began to shout SANTO! SANTO, and the expression on Ratzinger’s face as he paused to let them expresse themselves. I think that moment sealed for all of the cardinals how very urgent it is for them not to lose faith with the people. What a moment! What a moment!

Wolf Blitzer even sounds excited!

He also sounds like he is dreading the possibility of Ratzinger.

Interesting tidbit, again from K-Lo, at The Corner (I’m just going to call her K-Lo-at-the-corner all the time. It sounds funky) – she writes that the very liberal Fr. Richard McBrien, of Notre Dame University is convinced that Ratzinger’s “confrontational” homily of yesterday indicates that he (Ratzinger) knows he will not be pope.

McBrien added, “If Cardinal Ratzinger were really campaigning for pope, he would have given a far more conciliatory homily designed to appeal to the moderates as well as to the hard-liners among the cardinals.”

“I think this homily shows he realizes he’s not going to be elected. He’s too much of a polarizing figure,” McBrien said. “If he were elected, thousands upon thousands of Catholics in Europe and the United States would roll their eyes and retreat to the margins of the church.”

Bah! I LOVED what Ratzinger said yesterday. It was a brave throwing down of a gauntlet.