Joe,
Interesting...
Today's first reading at Mass (which I'll be doing as the today's lector) is Deuteronomy 26:4-10 and the Gospel is Luke 4:1-13, where Jesus is tempted by the Devil while he was fasting for 40 days in the desert. Yes, we are fully into the lenten season once more with it's days of fasting and abstinence, albeit less strict now then when I was younger. And in a perhaps appropriate way, this Lent will also be a time when our Church is going to select the next person who will wear the 'shoes of the Fisherman'. And this process will be unlike any that we've seen in modern times since we are not replacing a Pope who has died but rather one who has chosen to step down of his own free will.
I was in Detroit this past week and after attending Ash Wednesday services at my brother's Church, we went to dinner together with some friends of his and of course the subject came around to the Pope and the expected speculation as to who the next Pope might be and such, but also a comment that it will be interesting to watch this transpire since parts of the process will be missing, such as no official period of mourning, no funeral attended by both the religious and secular leaders of the world, etc. This time there will only be the election and transition, but not the public grief and retrospect that comes when a world leader dies and his legacy is reviewed without his presence acting to temper what is discussed both behind closed doors and in the public media.
It will be interesting to see how all of this will play out since there is a chance that, not unlike what has happened in our country these past 4+ years, that the Church may be on the verge of choosing someone who will come from a part of the Church's society that has never produced a Pope before. For example, the country with the most Catholics, both in terms of absolute number and as a percentage of the population is Brazil. And the Archbishop of San Paulo, Cardinal Odilo Pedro Scherer, is being seen as one of the favorites to replace Pope Benedict. He's the right age, 63 (not too old but not too young either), and despite him being born in and spending his entire life in the 3rd world, he's of 1st world stock (both his parents were decedents of German immigrants to Brazil). The only thing which might hold him back is that he's seen as being a moderate in the Church, one of the few non-conservative Cardinal appointed by either Pope John Paul or Pope Benedict during their terms, but perhaps the time is right for a new and more modern direction of the Church and so electing someone who better represents the world as it really is might be good for all of us.
Anyway, time will tell.
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