“Viva il Papa!”

Witnessed (through the wonders of television & live CNN coverage) a little bit of history today.

Just shortly after my prayer meeting ended, Fr. Byron called out from the priest’s dining room “They’ve chosen a Pope”.

What’s even lovelier was the fact that the church bells were all ringing continously at our church - some people even came out of their homes to find out why ! We were all so excited that we decided to all head over to Sean’s place & watch it all live - we had at least fifteen minutes between the white smoke & the announcing of the name of our new Pope.

Was trifle hungry so stopped over at ‘Biona’ which nows stands at the place ‘Hot Bread’ used to be. Bought a Chicken Quiche (& Sean’s mum gave us all lovely chicken slaw sandwiches, so that took care of dinner!)

I cannot express how wonderful it was when Senior Cardinal Jorge Medina Estevez came to make the announcement of whom the new Pope was… we were all cheering… it seemed obvious - whomever the new Pope was, he was obviously whom the Holy Spirit wanted, hence the order in the Church, hence the amazingly quick outcome of the Conclave (only the second in history apparently!) - just 2 days & they decided!

Cardinal Estevez was making his announcement in several languages, but we didn’t need any translation when he said “Cardinal Ratzinger”, the crowd went wild with excitement… we too all clapped loudly!!

Afterwards our new Holy Pope - who chose the name Benedict XVI came out himself & even gave us all a blessing

I love what he said “Dear brothers and sisters, after the great Pope John Paul II the cardinals have elected me a simple and humble laborer in the vineyard of the Lord,

“Let us go forward, the Lord will help us, and Mary, his most holy Mother, is on our side.”

Praise God for His latest gift to our lovely church.