We could have a new Pope by the weekend

The 48th Anvil Award that give tribute to the Philippine public relations profession was held at the Rizal Ballroom of the Makati Shangri-La Hotel a few days ago. Of course, there are Cebu-based companies that were given due recognition. The Ayala Center’s Balik Cebu 2012: A Warm Welcome and Rediscovery of One’s Home & Culture bagged a Merit Award for the PR Programs Category. The Anvil Awards in the PR Tools Category recognized Union Bank’s  Annual Report  2011 and the 5th Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. Triennial Awards. I’m only mentioning the Cebu-based companies because most of the awardees are Manila-based companies. Kudos to all!

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There were two interesting guests who graced yesterday’s 888 Forum at the Marco Polo Plaza Hotel. First was Dr. DamocaoAlonto, Jr. who spoke about the Sabah issue. I guess it was the first time in Cebu that the Sabah case was brought in an open media forum. But from his words, apparently Dr. Alonto seems to favor the moves of Malaysia. He is clear proof that even the Muslims are divided in the Sabah issue. Perhaps that is because Dr. Alonto is a Maranao, while the Kirams are Tausugs and these two just can’t get along, even if they are brother Muslims.

The other guest was my good friend, Atty. Antonio “Onyot” Oposa, who came right on time when we wrote yesterday about the problems we are experiencing in our road widening programs. I told Onyot that he must take a serious look at the National Building Code (NBC) and have it amended if he wants wider sidewalks for our people. But due to lack of space, I will discuss this thoroughly in tomorrow’s column.

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While we are now in the heat of the national mid-term elections, in Rome, the Osservatore Romano reported that the Conclave of 115 voting Cardinals have begun to choose the successor of resigned Pope Benedict XVI. Open your TV sets to CNN or BBC and even ABS-CBN and you will watch their not-so-veiled attempts to “influence” the Conclave by selling their own “Papabili”. Honestly, not one of them is even close.

There are even attempts by some media organizations to publish surveys (didn’t we say that surveys can be rigged?) that show that many Catholics would like the new Pope to accept contraception, divorce or even married priests. All these are nothing but hogwash. Perhaps amongst the news organizations, it is only the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) that came up with the right line up of candidates who could be pope.

The EWTN criterion was very clear… that the pope must be conservative… against liberalism or modernism… he must be between the age of 60 to 70 years old and above all, he must be a pastor to his flock. Honestly, if those cardinals featured by EWTN last Sunday do not emerge as pope, I would be disappointed. But as Italy’s largest and most influential newspaper La Repubblica states, there are seven cardinals who are leading in the Papabili, while EWTN only featured five cardinals.

So the million peso question is… “How long will the Conclave take to elect a new Pope?” For the 20th Century, Papal Conclaves never went more than 5 days. On this basis alone, we can reckon that by Saturday, we will have a new pope. The Vatican actually has kept records of the length of the Conclaves for the last 9 popes and it is quite an interesting Vatican history.

In 1903 Pope Pius X was elected in only 4 days with 7 votes. In 1914 Pope Benedict XV was elected by the Conclave in 3 days with 10 votes. In 1922, the Conclave took all but 5 days to elect Pope Pius X with 14 votes. In 1939 Pope Pius XII was elected in just 2 days with 3 votes, while in 1958, Angelo Cardinal Roncalli became Pope John XXIII when he was elected in 4 days with 11 votes.

The Conclave in 1963 took only 3 days and 6 votes to elect Pope Paul VI into the See of St. Peter. In 1978, Pope John Paul I was elected in just 2 days with 4 votes, while a month later, another Conclave took 3 days and 8 votes to elect Karol Cardinal Wojtyla who is now Blessed Pope John Paul II. In the last Conclave in 2005, the Conclave elected Josef Cardinal Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI in just 2 days and 4 votes. Using this Conclave historic record, we may have a new pope this coming weekend.

So this brings us to the bigger question, will the Conclave elect a liberal or conservative pope? My answer to this question is the same answer that my good friend, Michael Voris of Militant TV.Com answered me when I had him on my Talkshow a month ago… when he said, “It is the Holy Spirit who would elect the new Pope.” In short, the new pope, whoever he would be, will certainly remain loyal to the teachings of the Magisterium of the Catholic Church. That is indeed a great sigh of hope for us conservative Catholics.

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