Of course, I had that one figured out right away. In fact, I knew even before the announcement about Pope Francis was made.

See for yourself — this segment was taped and aired on CBN TV March 12, a full day before white smoke!

Start the video at the 2 minute 50 second mark:

I said: “We saw in Pope Benedict’s eight years a staunch support for the church’s teaching in support of the right to life, traditional marriage, and religious liberty, and so I have no doubts that the next pope will also carry on that banner.”

Yep, you heard it here first.

In his most recent column, Pat Buchanan reflects on the recent conclave and what has happened in Europe to usher in the first pontiff from the Americas. (He is not, as Max Fisher of the Washington Post points out, the first “non-European pope.”) Buchanan writes:

“The Faith is Europe. And Europe is the Faith,” wrote Hilaire Belloc after that bloodbath we call World War I. “Either Europe will return to the Faith or she will perish.”

By 1938, Belloc concluded Christian Europe was done:

“The bad work begun at the Reformation is bearing its final fruit in the dissolution of our ancient doctrines — the very structure of society is dissolving.” He was right. Europe is the dying continent.

And looking back at the history of the Old Continent, we see the truth of G.K. Chesterton’s insight: When men cease to believe in God, they do not then believe in nothing, they will believe in anything.

Consider the idols to which European Man has burnt incense since losing his faith: Darwinism, Marxism, Bolshevism, fascism, Nazism, now globalism — the idea of a secular paradise where mankind’s needs are met by the state and people spend their lives consuming cultural and material goods until the time comes for the painless exit.

Wednesday, even as Europe has said goodbye to Rome, Rome began to say goodbye to Europe, where the fastest growing faith is manifest in the mosques rising from Moscow to Madrid.

The College of Cardinals, for the first time ever, chose a pope from the New World: Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina.

But there is more at work here than just Europe’s abandonment of the Faith. The Catholicism that Europe itself exported – through missionaries like the Jesuits – is growing exponentially in places like Africa and the New World. Even the Philippines now has a larger Catholic population than Italy. National Geographic took a look at the shifting demographics of the Catholic Church, and what they reported is impressive.

In 1900, clearly a reflection of its historical roots, nearly seven-in-10 Catholics (67 percent) across the globe resided in Europe. At the time, France, with 40 million followers, was the largest Catholic country. As National Geographic notes, 98 percent of its population were believers at the time. Additionally, nearly all of Spain’s and Italy’s adherents were Catholics.

See the graphic showing the church’s distribution in 1900:

Photo Credit: National Geographic/Alexander Stegmail, Maggie Smith, NGM Staff

The century that followed showed massive changes in the population centers of the world, not just the Church. As developing nations increased their populations, the percentage of Catholics in Central and South America as well as Africa increased too. By 2010, the map of the world’s Catholics looked very different:

Photo Credit: National Geographic/Alexander Stegmail, Maggie Smith, NGM Staff

At the dawn of the 21st century, Latin America now accounts for 41% of Catholics worldwide with the largest concentration found in Brazil at 13%. Add the 6% of Catholics found in the United States, and roughly half the world’s Catholics now live in the Americas.

Latin America, in particular, presents challenges that the Church will have to confront. In addition to the still-alive-and-kicking problem of liberation theology which finds its origins in the region, Latin American Catholicism is straining to remain the religion of choice in an area of the world that is still plagued with poverty but also experiencing modernization and, in some sectors, massive economic growth. Reuters reports that:

Though Latin America is still home to more Catholics than any other region worldwide, the percentage of people in the region who call themselves Catholic fell from about 90 percent in 1910 to 72 percent in 2010, according to The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

And the trend appears to be accelerating.

In Brazil, the world’s biggest Catholic country, the number of people who called themselves Catholic tumbled from 74 percent in 2000 to 65 percent in 2010, according to government data. In Mexico, the world’s second-biggest concentration of faithful, census figures show the number there fell from 88 percent to below 83 percent during the same decade.

Pope Benedict himself recognized the size of the problem.

“We must be better believers, more pious, affable and welcoming in our parishes and communities, so that no one feels distant or excluded,” he said in remarks to Colombian bishops last June.

Latin American Catholics are being drawn to the more energetic manifestations of Evangelicalism, either because it offers a more appealing aesthetic, a different take on Christian doctrine, or simply because it provides some with a stronger sense of belonging. As Latin America grows more prosperous, people there find that they are more willing to break with tradition and chart a different course.

And Latin America, like the rest of the world, faces an ongoing assault against marriage, family, and traditional sexual morals. The erosion of the two-parent family has, in some instances, created such an obstacle to baptism that when Pope Francis was the archbishop of Buenos Aires he wrote passionately about the problem:

“In our ecclesiastical region there are priests who don’t baptise the children of single mothers because they weren’t conceived in the sanctity of marriage. These are today’s hypocrites. Those who clericalise the church. Those who separate the people of God from salvation. And this poor girl who, rather than returning the child to sender, had the courage to carry it into the world, must wander from parish to parish so that it’s baptised!”

It will be interesting to see how the concerns of the Catholic Church in the developing world will influence the focus of Francis’ papacy. At the time he wrote Europe and the Faith, Belloc had it right: “The Faith is Europe, and Europe is the Faith.” But this statement has long since ceased to ring true. Thus, the European hold on the papacy is, I think, irrevocably broken.

In 2013, there is no longer any region in the world that is synonymous with Catholicism. But there is a region in which the greatest number of Catholics live, and our pope is from among their people. It is a new world facing new challenges, but the Faith is always the Faith. The holy father himself made this clear in his first homily:

We can walk as much as we want, we can build many things, but if we do not profess Jesus Christ, things go wrong. We may become a charitable NGO, but not the Church, the Bride of the Lord. When we are not walking, we stop moving. When we are not building on the stones, what happens? The same thing that happens to children on the beach when they build sandcastles: everything is swept away, there is no solidity. When we do not profess Jesus Christ, the saying of Léon Bloy comes to mind: ‘Anyone who does not pray to the Lord prays to the devil.’ When we do not profess Jesus Christ, we profess the worldliness of the devil, a demonic worldliness.

How Pope Francis will govern this vastly different Church remains to be seen. One thing is certain: for Catholics these are interesting times.

When Pope Benedict XVI was elected, it was a delightful and welcome surprise. He was the cardinal that so many Catholics hoped, but dared not believe, would be elected. And because of his profile within the Church, many of us already knew him, had read his work and knew his thought, and had some idea of where his papacy might be focused.

Fast forward to the present. Since the conclave began, I had the sneaking suspicion that whoever was elected would be someone I didn’t expect or would even recognize.

As I watched, the suspense building, and the announcement came…well, I’m not too proud to admit it. I had no idea who Cardinal Bergoglio was. I still have to Google his name as I type this just to make sure I have it right.

Who is Pope Francis I? This is a question I imagine we’ll all be answering over the coming weeks, months, and even years. The various accounts I’ve read since the announcement paints an interesting picture. A Latin American cardinal with a focus on social justice but not liberation theology. A simple man who lives in a modest apartment, cooks his own food, and takes public transit, rather than living in the opulence of a bishop’s mansion. A shepherd who visits the poor and tends to the sick, and who is also outspokenly pro-life, pro-family, and a champion of traditional sexual morality.

He has chosen the name of Francis I. There is no pope of this name in the Church, no example to look to in the past. Already the discussion has broken out among Catholics: is his namesake St. Francis of Assisi, or his fellow Jesuit, St. Francis Xavier? Each patron would have a quite different connotation, and indicate perhaps a different direction for his papacy.

There are some things about him that, for me at least, raise questions. His record seems to indicate a lack of interest in liturgical reform, a hallmark of Benedict’s papacy that was valued by so many, myself included. By some accounts, the implementation of Summorum Pontificum in his diocese is imperceptible, which is not comforting to those of us who are attached to the Extraordinary Form and would like to see its availability increased and supported.

Still, there is much more that most of us don’t know than that we know. Of all the accounts I’ve read, the most thorough has been that of John Allen in the National Catholic Reporter. Allen writes:

After the dust settled from the election of Benedict XVI, various reports identified the Argentine Jesuit as the main challenger to then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. One cardinal later said the conclave had been “something of a horse race” between Ratzinger and Bergoglio, and an anonymous conclave diary splashed across the Italian media in September 2005 claimed that Bergoglio received 40 votes on the third ballot, just before Ratzinger crossed the two-thirds threshold and became pope.

Though it’s hard to say how seriously one should take the specifics, the general consensus is that Bergoglio was indeed the “runner-up” last time around. He appealed to conservatives in the College of Cardinals as a man who had held the line against liberalizing currents among the Jesuits, and to moderates as a symbol of the church’s commitment to the developing world.

[...]

The case for Bergoglio in 2013 rests on four points.

First and most basically, he had strong support last time around, and some cardinals may think that they’re getting another bite at the apple now.

Second, Bergoglio is a candidates who brings together the first world and the developing world in his own person. He’s a Latin American with Italian roots, who studied in Germany. As a Jesuit he’s a member of a truly international religious community, and his ties to Comunione e Liberazionemake him part of another global network.

Third, Bergoglio still has appeal across the usual divides in the church, drawing respect from both conservatives and moderates for his keen pastoral sense, his intelligence, and his personal modesty. He’s also seen as a genuinely spiritual soul, and a man of deep prayer.

“Only someone who has encountered mercy, who has been caressed by the tenderness of mercy, is happy and comfortable with the Lord,” Bergoglio said in 2001. “I beg the theologians who are present not to turn me in to the Sant’Uffizio or the Inquisition; however, forcing things a bit, I dare to say that the privileged locus of the encounter is the caress of the mercy of Jesus Christ on my sin.”

Fourth, he’s also seen as a successful evangelist.

“We have to avoid the spiritual sickness of a self-referential church,” Bergoglio said recently. “It’s true that when you get out into the street, as happens to every man and woman, there can be accidents. However, if the church remains closed in on itself, self-referential, it gets old. Between a church that suffers accidents in the street, and a church that’s sick because it’s self-referential, I have no doubts about preferring the former.”

There’s much more in Allen’s profile, and I suggest to all of you who, like me, are wondering about our new Holy Father, that it’s worth reading.

For the first time in over three decades, we have a pope whom we do not know. I suspect that he will surprise us, and his will be a very different papacy in many respects than the last two that came before him, but also familiar.

I sincerely hope that he continues the reform of the post-Vatican II Church that Pope Emeritus Benedict so lovingly began, through actions like the liberation of the traditional Mass and the improved translation of the Roman Missal. I hope, too, that he brings his sense of personal simplicity and charity to a Church that is still wounded from abuse scandals and filled with disillusioned and confused faithful. I look forward to his ability to energize Catholics in the Spanish-speaking world, who have become such an important component of the Universal Church. I am thrilled that he will continue to defend the traditional family and the sanctity of life in a world that seems so aggressively in pursuit of the destruction of both.

History shows us that the man who is elected pope is often very different than the pope who reigns. I have little doubt that this papacy will bring surprises. I look forward to getting to know our new Holy Father.

Much is already being made about Pope Francis’ opposition to gay adoption when it was at issue in Argentina in 2010.

This humble man who cooks his own food and takes public transportation puts a lie to the smear that equates all pro-family positions with hatred. Reports John Allen Jr., “He has shown deep compassion for the victims of HIV-AIDS; in 2001, he visited a hospice to kiss and wash the feet of 12 AIDS patients.”

If you hear someone accuse Pope Francis of hating homosexuals, remind them: He’s not the only one who has questioned gay adoption. Many homosexual men and women do, too.

Business Insider’s story.

At the huge marriage protests in France,  many voices in the gay community rallied on the side of children, and against gay adoption.

Said one gay man, Jean-Pier:

“For me, the question behind this, the fundamental issue, is the child. Among the responses I’ve heard, I’ve had this business of freedom and equality. Then I pose this question: What of the freedom and equality of the child? The child won’t have its equality vis-a-vis its friends in school. Its peers may have divorced and blended families, but they have, at least, a father and mother.”

He even applied this to his life:

“Twenty five years ago — remember, I’m 49 — I truly wondered about having a child. Like everyone else, I wanted to have a child; it was a question of transmitting my heritage. But then I realized very quickly that if I were going to have a child that way, it would be for the wrong reasons.”

I also recall interviewing homosexual activist John McKellar in 2002. At the time I interviewed him, he was president of Homosexuals Opposed to Pride Extremism (HOPE).

“Sure, we all have baby envy, and lots of us would like to raise kids,” he said. “But we can’t have everything we want in life, and it’s selfish and rude to redefine society’s traditions and conventions simply for our self-indulgence.”

He told me the movement wasn’t about white picket fences.

“Our lifestyle is very much about party, pageant, parade, and promiscuity,” he said. “We want to have our cake and eat it, too. There was an article in the gay press last year titled, ‘How to Stay Married and Still Be a Slut.’“

The New York Times in 2010 said that this characterization of the homosexual lifestyle was an “open secret” — half of San Francisco’s gay marriages became “open” relationships within a year.

The children of homosexuals have added their voices to the chorus questioning gay adoption.

Dawn Stefanowicz shares her experiences growing up in such a household. This National Catholic Register article links others that give resources for adult children of homosexual couples and requests that children’s voices be heard.

So Pope Francis isn’t nuts to oppose homosexual adoption. Many homosexuals — and their kids — share his opinion.

This morning, a friend of mine who lives in Rome posted the following observation on Facebook:

Looking up at the chimney on the Sistine Chapel this morning, I began to see the problem with creating recognisably black smoke in weather like this. With the light grey of the overcast, any solid, including smoke particles, are going to show up appearing very dark in silhouette. It was obvious last night that the smoke was v. black, but in daylight, I think all the smoke they make is going to look dark grey.

But lighting questions aside, the larger question remains: how do they make the colored smoke? A longstanding mystery, yesterday the Vatican Press Office revealed the secret recipe. Henry Fountain, science writer for the New York Times explains:

The white smoke, used to announce the election of a new pope, combines potassium chlorate, milk sugar (which serves as an easily ignitable fuel) and pine rosin, Vatican officials said in a statement. The black smoke, which was used Tuesday evening to signal that no one in the first round of balloting received the necessary two-thirds vote of the 115 cardinals, uses potassium perchlorate and anthracene (a component of coal tar), with sulfur as the fuel. Potassium chlorate and perchlorate are related compounds, but perchlorate is preferred in some formulations because it is more stable and safer.

The chemicals are electrically ignited in a special stove first used for the conclave of 2005, the statement said. The stove sits in the Sistine Chapel next to an older stove in which the ballots are burned; the colored smoke and the smoke from the ballots mix and travel up a long copper flue to the chapel roof, where the smoke is visible from St. Peter’s Square.

There you have it, folks. Considering the rather formidable list of Catholic scientists throughout the ages, it comes as no surprise that even the papal conclave messaging service is just another example of better living through chemistry!

In certain Catholic circles, there has been no small amount of alarm over Pope Emeritus Benedict’s abdication, and the possible circumstances that precipitated it. Those who have always looked to Benedict as a dauntless pillar of strength in a very tumultuous period for the Church found it suspicious that he would step down from his duties unless in some way, his hand was forced. To many, he always seemed to be the sort who would carry that cross until his dying day, come what may.

Personally, I’ve never doubted that the Holy Father acted in good faith and of his own volition. Whatever else the world may think about him, there are few who would argue that he is not a man of keen intellect and tenacious adherence to principle. But this does not mean that his decision was not influenced by forces that he feared might overwhelm even his capacity to forestall.

Dr. Robert B. Moynihan, founder and editor-in-chief of Inside the Vatican magazine wrote yesterday of an encounter he had with a member of the curia that lends credence to this concern. After recognizing a certain unnamed cardinal of his acquaintance dressed in the manner of a simple clergyman on the streets of Rome, Moynihan approached him to speak a concern that had been on his mind.

“Your eminence,” I said.

In his eyes he was saying to me that he could not answer any questions.

But he was not excluding all conversation. And so I ventured…

“I only wanted to tell you one thing,” I said. “That I loved Pope Benedict.”

He stood still.

“I did too, and I do love him,” the cardinal said.

“And so I have been troubled and a bit off balance since February 11,” I said.

And then, as if filled with a sudden emotion, I saw the cardinal’s face grow dark and sad, and he said, forcefully: “I love him, but this should never have happened. He never should have left his office.”

I was silent.

“It is like a man and a woman, a husband and wife, a mother and father in relation to their children,” he said. “What do they say?” It seemed he was asking me the question.

I was silent.

“They say, ‘until death do us part!’ They stay together always.”

So I understood him to be saying that he felt a Successor of Peter should not step down from the throne, no matter how weary and tired, but continue until death.

I felt the words he was speaking were the words of an argument that may have been used even among the cardinals, but of course, that may not be the case.

But I felt that I was catching a glimpse of how at least one cardinal was thinking about the Pope’s renunciation.

“Your eminence,” I said, “I’ve forgotten. Are you already above age 80, or not?

“I am not yet 80,” he told me.

“So you will be voting tomorrow.”

He nodded, and a look passed over his eyes which seemed filled with shadows and concerns. I was surprised at his intensity. I was surprised by the whole conversation.

He squeezed my hand. “Is there anything else I can do?” I asked.

“Pray for us,” he said. “Pray for us.”

He turned as if he needed to go.

“I have to go.”

He took a step away from me, then turned again.

“It is a dangerous time. Pray for us.”

I think we should do as he asked.

It is good that we trust in the wisdom of Benedict’s decision, that we believe that whatever the reason, he knew what he was doing. But this should not put us at our ease. I believe in the very core of my being that the cardinal is right. It is a dangerous time for the Church. I can feel it. The forces of darkness are alert, and there is something afoot. What it is, we may never know. But this is far from an ordinary conclave.

In any conclave, Catholics who love the Church pray for the election of a good and holy pontiff. In this conclave, we should pray all the more, and invoke St. Michael’s intercession. Remember the reason for the prayer’s composition:

Pope Leo XIII (reigned from 1878-1903) composed the now famous “Prayer to Saint Michael” after celebrating the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass with a group of cardinals. During the Mass, the Holy Father fell to the floor at the foot of the altar. It seemed that the Holy Father had died or suffered from a stroke. Suddenly, the Pope revived and said, “What a horrible vision I was allowed to see.”

Apparently the pontiff saw a future influx of demonic forces into the Catholic Church. He subsequently authored the following prayer to Saint Michael, seeking to gain further protection for the Church. Pope Leo XIII also ordered this prayer it be prayed by the priest and faithful at the end of every low Mass.

Latin
Sancte Michael Archangele, defende nos in proelio; contra nequitiam et insidias diaboli esto praesidium. Imperat illi Deus; supplices deprecamur: tuque, Princeps militiae coelestis, Satanam aliosque spiritus malignos, qui ad perditionem animarum pervagantur in mundo, divina virtute in infernum detrude. Amen.

English:
Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in the battle, be our safeguard and protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil; may God rebuke him, we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and all evil spirits who wander through the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

As a Catholic attached to the Traditional Latin Mass, I have had the privilege of seeing the old practice of praying the St. Michael prayer at the foot of the altar after every low Mass. Here in Northern Virginia, many parishes that celebrate the Novus Ordo have restored the tradition of the St. Michael prayer at the conclusion of the liturgy. If you are a pastor, I urge you to pray it with your parishioners. If you are a parent, pray it with your family. If you believe that the Devil is at work both in the world and in the Church, pray it on your own. Every day. If you want to really stick it to the Devil, pray the longer version of the prayer.

May God grant us a holy and wise pontiff. May He grant us a strong pontiff. May He grant us a better pontiff than we deserve.