On the drive home from work, I was listening to my usual morning radio show when they cut over to the Vatican to broadcast the announcement of a new pope. There I was, driving 85 miles an hour, all giddy with excitement as I listened to a cardinal start to address the crown at St. Peter's Square. When he finally uttered the words, "Habemus Papam" I even took my hands of the steering wheel to clap. I'm sure I'd have looked like an idiot to anyone who could have been watching me in the car. I was cheering along with the madding crowd thousands of miles away. And I gasped out loud when they announced that the new pope was Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, former Archbishop of Munich.
Then it hit me... WHY? I was baptized and confirmed Catholic, but as an adult I'm an avowed agnostic. Hehehe... haven't been to church in years, and I don't really have a spiritual side to me. So it was quite strange to catch myself participating in the excitement of the start of a new pontificate.
Chalk it up to group hysteria, and getting caught up in the moment. After all, this is a significant historical event. And I heard it unfold live. Whee.
Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum;
habemus Papam:
Eminentissimum ac Reverendissimum Dominum,
Dominum Josephum
Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae Cardinalem Ratzinger
qui sibi nomen imposuit Benedictum XVI