Those Catholics know how to do timing. I was sitting in the parking lot at St. P’s Wednesday, waiting for dismissal, when suddenly the skies opened up and what had been light flurries turned into thick, white flakes that cut visibility and quickly covered windshields. It only lasted a minute or so, but as those big flakes fell, I couldn’t help but think that they looked like white smoke blowing across the parking lot. A little like the white smoke that was blowing in Vatican City at roughly the same time.
Get it?!?!
As this was happening, I was checking Twitter and saw that the new pope was about to be announced. When the kids were let out, C. came out oblivious to the news. But M. came out moments later and ran to me, yelling, “There’s a new pope! But we don’t know who he is yet! It’s 8:00 in Rome!”
She was full of facts.
When we got to the van I asked if they had talked about how the new pope was picked. She said no, so I did my best to share what I knew of the process. We talked it through a few times until she finally let out a gasp and shared the following realization in an all CAPS voice without any space between words. I’ll tone it down for your comprehension.
“OH! So it’s like a secret vote, but it’s just the cardinals, right, and it’s like they are voting for the president, only it’s the pope! I get it!”
Gist acquired.
When we got home, I was surprised that all three girls sat quietly in front of MSNBC as we watched part of the Pope’s address. Considering that none of it was in English, they remained interested for quite a while. Although it could have just been the time difference. For some reason they were amazed by that.
Anyway, my contribution to my daughters’ spiritual lives is checked off for another quarter!
ↁ