As the holiest of days in all of christendom, wouldn't he try to squeeze in one last hurrah? What's one more month in the moveable-feasty scheme of things anyway? Surely his health is not so precarious that it precludes one last Easter, yunno. I can't wait for the other red Gucci PopeShoe to drop.

I could see him giving a year's notice, but not his two-weeks'.

Obviously, he is not on his deathbed.

The Conclave convenes 15-20 days after the abdication. Easter is March 31st. The Pope is crowned on the first Sunday or Holy Day after his election. Thus, depending upon when the Conclave is convened and how long it takes, the Pope will be in place before Easter.

If the Conclave lasts less than three days, then the new Pope will be crowned on Palm Sunday. If longer, on Good Friday. Appropriate times for a change in leadership.

I won't hold my breath.

I want to see the faces of those bigots who hate Obama so much when Turkson is elected Pope.

After all, Peter Turkson is part of the problem where the spread of AIDS in Africa is concerned, seeing that he tut-tuts any notion of condom distribution in the fight against AIDS...plus there's his Islamophobic stance toward immigration to Europe, homophobic statements concerning 'alternative lifestyles,' and devotion to 'orthodoxy,' which means the RCC will remain mired in doctrine better suited to medieval times. Actually, I haven't seen any better alternative among the contenders mentioned, but at least the world stands a better chance of seeing the AIDS epidemic - which I see as the biggest opportunity for a new pontiff to make a difference in the world - addressed in a meaningful way.

nt

If he covered up the sexual abuse of children, he deserves NO good-will ever!

At all.

I'll pray that the US, Britain, and European nations expose and prosecute wrongdoers to the full extent of our/their secular laws. I'll pray that a whole bunch of priests, bishops, and cardinals end up in prison in our nations and not tucked away in some cushy sinecure in Rome.

Thanks for asking.

Hekate

...I don't think so.

Isn't faith good enough, Pontiff?

Maybe what you are saying is "pray for the church, cause if it has to stand for something after all the awful things it allows to continue, I'd be hanging up those hopes, too.

And he called you a pervert. You can't fool Mother Nature.

Why does he need anyone to pray for him?