NBC is reporting white smoke and bells. I'm watching it live here.
Why do I care? For the same reason I like football: the pageantry, the history, and the story line.
It's a soap opera I'm permitted to follow.
Update: It's Ratzinger, and he's calling himself Benedict XVI.
On the brighter side of life: Pope Benedictine is likely to massively unpopular, especially in North and South America. As a cardinal, he helped squelch "liberation theology" in South America, and he helped to hide Cardinal "above the" Law from the police in Boston. He also forccefully opposes "collegiality" or the idea that local parishes and dioceses should be able to make decsions themselves. That doesn't go over well on these shores.
I have a feeling he's going to piss a lot of people off, weaken the church and widen the wedge between the priests and the people. As someone who is eagerly looking forward to the day when the whole outdated and stupid enterprise becomes completly and totally Walt Disneyified, I say let's go Pope Panzer!
Or is it Pope Palpatine?
Or maybe Pope Clayven?