Papabile

As you watch the news media go berserk over the next few weeks trying to decide who will be the next pope, I remind you of an old saying in Rome: "The cardinal who goes into the conclave a pope comes out a cardinal."

This is not always the case, of course. Benedict XVI is an example of a candidate who was considered most likely to succeed to the Chair of Peter. But don't place any bets.

I understand that when the Eastern Orthodox select a patriarch, they nominate two or three candidates, and then in keeping with the example of the apostles in Acts 1:23 - 26, they cast lots, thus leaving the final selection up to the Holy Spirit or to chance, depending on your perspective. I do not know if this is still the custom, but it is an interesting one.

FYI, if the term patriarch is unfamiliar, the highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Catholic Church (above Major Archbishop and Primate), and the Assyrian Church of the East are termed Patriarchs (and in certain cases also popes). The office and ecclesiastical circumscription (comprising one or more provinces, though outside his own (arch)diocese he is often without enforceable jurisdiction) of such a Patriarch is termed a Patriarchate. Historically, a Patriarch may often be the logical choice to act as Ethnarch, representing the community that is identified with his religious confession within a state or empire of a different creed (as Christians within the Ottoman Empire). I know, I know: Too much information!

Papabile, of course, refers to someone likely to become pope.