no matter who is chosen as the next pope, he faces major challenges. the vatican is still under pressure to reveal more about failure to protect children from abusive priests. and the new pope has to restore discipline to the scandal plagued vatican. father thomas reese covers the vatican for the national catholic reporter. the last two papacies we elected the smartest man in the room. brilliant theologians. maybe it is time to elect some one who listens to all the other smart people in the room. someone who brings together all these people who work together on the common problems facing the church. there s also the challenge of those, particularly here in the u.s. and in europe, who say they have no religion at all. i read an article pointing out some of the little secrets of the conclave, some of the behind-the-scenes stuff. this i found fascinating. no one s ever refused. if you get elected you don t say, no thanks, guys. you take it. so many new popes are overcome question
this, there have been a lot of catholics and theologians talking about what can come next. and there s one priest who s been writing about the whole process, saying that now may be the best time ever to shake things up. take a listen to this. the last two papacies, we elected the smartest man in the room. brilliant theologians. maybe it s time to elect someone who listens to all the other smart people in the room, and the church itself, and brings these creative people together, to solve the problems facing the church. elizabeth, the only thing we know for sure to come out of this conclave is that it will be a man, someone under 80, and that s catholic. what are the other surprises that you think may happen? are we focusing and talking about all the wrong names, potentially? i think there is still a lot more room for surprises here. i realize that everybody s narrowed down these polls and we keep narrowing down the playing fields, but every now and then, i look, and i think, why