Wesley Pruden: Uninformed guesses, a little holy smoke

Washington Times ^ | Tuesday, April 19, 2005 | Wesley Pruden

[JohnHuang2]

Is nothing sacred in our time? London bookies, who will quote odds on which ant will spoil the first picnic of summer, have made Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi of Milan the favorite candidate for pope, going off at 5-2. Cardinal Francis Arinze of Nigeria was quoted at 11-4 when the clubhouse door closed, and Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras was put at 4-1. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany, everybody's early favorite — i.e., the choice of the Vatican press pool — sank to 7-1 at post time. Click to learn more... But the press pool is even more irreverent. Irrelevant, too. All the learned analyses, printed in the newspapers with such solemn seriousness, are actually so much bunk. You might as well ask the ants at the picnic. Still, speculation is entertaining, and Catholics offended by the secular encroachment on the ritual can take consolation in the fact that the secular world actually, sincerely, genuinely, earnestly cares who succeeds John Paul II.