Cardinal Arinze's sure-fire prediction concerning the next Pope

Fr Zuhlsdorf has suggested that a good thing to do at this time is to listen to Mozart's Clarinet Concerto in A (K. 622). This strikes me as eminently sensible: obviously something in addition to praying for the Church but it can help us along at the present time.

There is good sense too, in the address by Fr Julian Large, Provost of the London Oratory. (H/T Bara Brith) Father Provost warns against punditry, saying:

It is enough that the next successor of St Peter should be Catholic, holy, wise and strong. We should put all of our energies into praying for a candidate who has been endowed with these qualities and leave the rest to God.

At a time like this, parish priests need to reassure people that much of what is written in the newspapers or broadcast on TV is uninformed tosh. Thanks be to God, Tim Stanley has an excellent light-hearted article which saves the rest of us having to explain the matter at length:Pope Benedict XVI resigns: the mainstream media just doesn't get God or Catholicism.



For a pithy rejoinder to everyone's instant expertise on who the Cardinals are likely to choose, I like to use the expression of Cardinal Arinze: "All Popes will not have the same face." We can be sure of that - the next Pope will have a different face. We know that for sure - and not much else.

But we can pray that the Cardinals elect a man who is "Catholic, holy, wise and strong." We can also have our own favourites. Such as Cardinal Mauro Piacenza for example.