White smoke rising from the Sistine Chapel chimney, Joseph Ratzinger from Germany has became the 265th pope. As a Catholic myself, having a new pope, the leader of the Church suppose to be quite exciting, but I just feel indifference towards the new Pope. According to the news, he leans heavy towards the conservative camp, which on many issues I couldn’t agree with base on my conscience. I don’t worry too much on this front, since it cann’t be worse than the previous Pope. Judging from the photos, Ratzinger lacks the personal charm of John Paul II that holds the Church together. I hope I’ll have better impression on him after meeting him in person at World Youth Day later this August. On a side note, there is an interesting prophecy of the Popes written by Arnold de Wyon in 1595, which is known as the St. Malachy list. The list had predicted 111 Popes before the “end of time”, and Bendict XVI is the 2nd last one. So far with the help of postdiction, the motto descripted in the list are stuntly accurate. Since I never believe in those superstitious talk about the 2nd coming, my intrepretation of this prophecy would be “end of time” actually means the complete disintegration of the Catholic Church. I won’t be surprise if this Pope choose an ulta-conservative path and making the Liberals break away from the Church. I guess I have no regret being part of the Church in its last moment and witness the fall of the largest and most historical religion institute ever existed. My only concern is after the Catholic church gone away, is there any religion force left to resist the Muslim and Prostestant fundamentist?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"