Papal election - New Pope must relate to people

NEVER in the course of history have the eyes of the world focused so intensely on a papal conclave as on the deliberations of cardinals engaged in the momentous process of electing this new Pope.

Due to the remarkable esteem in which the late Pope John Paul II was held by people of all religions and none, the resources of the global media are now concentrated on a narrow stovepipe over the Sistine Chapel, waiting to beam news and pictures to millions of the first plume of white smoke signifying his successor’s election.

If anything is predictable in papal elections, it is that nothing is predictable. Down the centuries, but especially in more recent times, conclaves have invariably produced surprises.