I know I shouldn't comment on this but I just couldn't help it.

First, the voting was shrouded in unnecessary secrecy (Yahoo! news link), with which more confusion was thrown in when the stupid bell did not ring as expected. Then the crowd chanted his name in response to his speech. A good measure of jubilation was felt by the crowd (and I'm sure countless more in other parts of the world when they received the news.) But I couldn't help doubting him when he described himself as "a simple, humble worker" (for goodness sake, no humble man would ever describe himself as humble!) And to add to the already frenzied mix, an awakening country in Asia joins in the "fun", asking him to "break the ties and stay out of our business".

At first I was kinda amused when one of my colleagues was watching the "live" telecast on the election of the new pope. At first, the video feed window occupied about 1/5 of the monitor, which later he made it full-screen. He was looking intently at the chimney and he became very excited when he saw white smoke coming out of it. (The reason why he was watching the video feed during office hours is not difficult to guess, but that's a different "rant" altogether.) He then proclaimed hysterically "White smoke! White smoke!" and I quickly became kinda irritated by him.

My short-lived amusement soon turned into skepticism (may I say "disgust"?) after I thought through this whole thing for some time. I thought I was the only one feeling this way, but I guess I'm not since quite a number seem to share my view. C.H. Spurgeon wrote a short article on his view of Papacy. In his article/comment, he said

Christ did not redeem his church with his blood that the pope .... a poor sinner, a mere man, should be set upon high to be admired by all the nations, and to call himself God's representative on earth. Christ has always been the Head of the church.

C.H. Spurgeon

And, the whole voting process is so paganish! Why must they use of the different colored smoke to announce the results when all they needed to do was to just "come out and tell the whole world"? Back in the olden days, perhaps this was the best method to inform the people who were living quite a distance away from the church, but with the advance of technology, the result could be just announced with just one keystroke, namely the Enter key! (Okay, to be fair, 3 to 4 keystrokes. N-O-[Enter] or Y-E-S-[Enter]). And the broadcasting technologies are also so advanced that "hello you just need to speak into the microphone and the whole world will know"! Is this level of secrecy necessary? Why the secrecy then? To raise the stakes for bets? Oh yes, the stupid bell didn't ring and I'm sure millions of people must have held their breath for quite some time. (I hope none held their breath for a good 15 minutes and died in the process.)

I'm not too sure on this, but I don't think when Jesus entered Jerusalem was there so much jubilation felt, as compared to the appearance of this new pope. Luckily (for this new pope), Jesus isn't jealous over this kind of fanfare; otherwise, I dare not imagine what would have happened to him the moment he stepped out. Of course, as mentioned, how credible would you think a person is when he describes himself as "a simple, humble worker"? No humble man describes himself as humble, and when one does, I'm sure a lot of us would feel very skeptical about his personality; only the insane would feel otherwise (oops, did I just insulted millions of people?)

The Roman Catholic Church has had a deep influence in politics in the past, and it seems like she still has now. China, currently the fastest growing country (in terms of economy), wants the Catholic Church not to interfere with the China-Taiwan "family issues" (or else what? Declare war with them?) And the big bully (not US, I'm referring to China) is clenching her juggernaut fists, demanding outrageously. I could be wrong about the Catholic Church's influence, and I hope I'm wrong; otherwise, the Catholic Church would be of no difference to the politicians of the world (other than the fact that she's operating from the religious angle, as well as her ability to call for people of different nationalities, for her political motives.)

This election of the pope is in startling resemblance to the history of the Israelites' request to enthrone a king over them to lead them (Sam 8:6). God knew their true intent for it is recorded:

And the LORD told him: "Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.

Sam 8:7

So is the election of the pope somehow an expression of the Catholics rejecting God like the Israelites did? I hope not, but their actions (for example, their chanting, which went "Viva il Papa!" or in plain English - "Long live the pope!") seem to indicate otherwise.

Whatever it is, I wonder if the Catholics know they are directly accountable to God Himself, and not to the pope. Yes, I'm sure if I were to pose this question to them, the answer I would receive would unanimously be "yes, we know", but I doubt they could really differentiate the truth and their irrational beliefs.

PS: This is not meant to start a flame between the Catholics and Christians. I'm just recording my thoughts.... :)