emphasis or are we seeing something more than a matter of emphasis with the pope. he s still a catholic pope. but we have moved from two consecutive papacies that were focus on consolidation where pope john paul ii and his successor pope benedict drifting too far and too fast away from certain moorings, we had therefore doing quick math here, something like 33 years of consolation which is not unusual in a large institution that has gone through a it s time for us to go out to the world, the church s job is to introduce people to christ. and so it s fundamentally by tone, but that tone is rather important because consolation can never be the central business of the church. i think the tone a aspect of it grace and empathy, you re right, father bill, no church teachings have changed.
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
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 theologianses. 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 ever refused. if you get elected you don t say, no thanks, guys. you take it.
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
papacies. so you can get that pope benedict the xvi at 8:00pm will probably go and have a very simple dinner east usually does at that time, and then he will begin a new phase of his life. things will be very quiet. the secretary will also be relieved. he s had a long eight years as well by his side, and they will begin a new phase of study, of prayer, and also of communication, of writing and communicating with the other cardinals and other people but in a very, very private way. way. jenna: a beautiful day in italy for this type of an event. we keep on mentioning that there is more than a billion catholics worldwide. there is more than 5 million catholics in the united states and obviously the pope is the leader of the catholic church but ashley is back on set with us as well, senior fellow with the catholic association. ashley, your thoughts not