::Sunday, April 03, 2005::
THE POPE IS DEAD. LONG LIVE THE POPE!
.. God in His infinite wisdom and grace has called home a faithful servant and a great man of faith. Now official mourning begins and the search for a new Pope will take place in a conclave (the meeting of the College of Cardinals to cast their secret ballots). In a figurative sense the Pope died but the Papacy lives. The Papacy - the Vicar of Christ and the Successor of Peter is greater than one man and like the Church has survived against all odds - against all the assaults and tides of history according to Greg Tobin in his book "Selecting The Pope". The papacy will survive and persevere, upheld by the fundamental belief that the "Holy Spirit sustains the church and the pope in his authority and teaching office that there is reason and purpose beyond mere human understanding of his role in keeping the church one, holy, catholic, and apostolic."
