Italian Bishops Thank God for Wrong Pope

GMA News (Philippines)
March 14, 2013

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/299342/news/weirdandwacky/italian-bishops-thank-god-for-wrong-pope

Seminarians from Australia show a special edition of the Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano to diners from Ireland at a restaurant in Rome on Thursday, March 14. Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina was elected as the new leader of the troubled Roman Catholic Church on Wednesday, taking the name Francis and becoming the first non-European pontiff in nearly 1,300 years. Reuters/Chris Helgren

Italian bishops were so convinced that one of their own would become pope that they sent a congratulatory message to the media thanking God for the election of a prelate from Milan.

The trouble was, the new pope had already been named as Argentinean cardinal Jorge Bergoglio.

The secretary-general of the Italian conference, Monsignor Mariano Crociata, expressed "joy and thanks" to God for the election of Cardinal Angelo Scola of Milan in a statement sent to reporters at 8:23 p.m. (3:23 a.m. Phl time) on Wednesday night.

About 10 minutes earlier, Bergoglio had made his first appearance before the crowds in St. Peter's Square.

At 9:08 p.m. (4:08 a.m. Phl time), the Italian bishops conference sent another statement thanking God for the election of the pope, but this time got the name right.

In the days leading up the secret conclave, many Italian newspapers openly promoted Scola as the next pope.

The newspapers - and the bishops conference - appear to have missed the warning contained in a traditional Italian saying that front-runners at a papal conclave are often disappointed.

"He who enters a conclave as a pope, leaves it as a cardinal," the saying goes. Perhaps it was never more true in the modern age than in the conclave that elected Bergoglio instead of the Italian favorite Scola. — Reuters