Business As Usual is Untenable, by Larry Chapp

One thing keeps rattling around in my head as I travel around Rome and chat with various folks: the sense that there is a “business as usual” air about the election of the next pope. There is, of course, an air of excitement and expectation, as is always the case when the drama of a papal election looms on the horizon. But, overall, the mood is calm, with little in the way of alarmist histrionics. I was talking in a bookstore yesterday with a charming elderly religious sister who has lived in Rome for 40 years. She summed up her attitude toward the conclave, and that of her fellow sisters, as marked by a simple curiosity rather than any sense of apocalyptic dread should the wrong person be elected.

I know that this encounter provides only anecdotal evidence for my claim and is a one-case induction to a rather sweeping generality. But it did confirm for me that my impressions of a “business as usual” mentality as the conclave approaches are largely accurate. …