We interrupt this lack of anime posting with a decidedly non-anime subject. This afternoon, I and a coworker watched the announcement of the new Pope. In the run-up to his name being announced, my co-worker was willing to bet money that it would be another Italian elected, after a succession of non-Italians. He was hoping for a reformer. I acknowledged the possibility, but felt that another Italian would be a terrible idea at this juncture. They needed a Latin/South American. What did we get? An Italian Argentinean (There is a substantial number of Italians who emigrated to Argentina — more than in the US, I’ve heard).
What I consider interesting is that he was considered the dark horse, the third-likeliest candidate to be elected. In view of his advanced age, I don’t see any other way to call this: Pope Frances I is a placekeeper. The infighting was serious enough that the cardinals decided to postpone the real succession fight for a couple of years, and to do so, they threw a bone to the Latinos (and Jesuits). In a few years, we’ll be right back here again; in the meantime, the new Pope will have little support to aggressively deal with the church’s problems.
In this, they remind me of nothing so much as the Soviet Politburo picking new leaders of the Soviet Union in the post-Kruchev days.
Remember John Paul I? Neither does anyone else.
Frances II might be interesting.