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It’s a beautiful Monday morning in lower Alabama.  The birds are chirping, the sun still low enough in the sky to let the cool air mix with the soft, silent morning light.  I’ve just started a new day job that affords me a little more sleep in the morning and the refreshment of having the desire to write.

I just read about Pope Celestine V, a man who was appointed to the position in the 1200’s, and who didn’t want to be the Pope at all.  All he wanted was to be a hermit and a monk, but somehow he was elected and took on the job.  That was a very trying time for the Church; there were a lot of bad popes - most for their moral fiber, but Celestine, a good man of prayer and solitude, was bad at being an administrator.  It was also the time of deep political division in Italy, Guelph and Ghibelline - the time of Dante’s Divine Comedy. And as if to mirror the comedy in real life, Celestine V became the only Pope in history to resign.

I feel lucky to have Pope Benedict XVI leading us, currently.  He is a prayerful scholar and the type of man, unlike Celestine V, who is built for the job.  There have been a lot of Popes - a lot of kingdoms, countries, and cities have been built and fallen, but the Church is still there.  It has responded to the world, sometimes poorly, sometimes brilliantly, but the Church has never quit - nor do I think it will ever quit. When, hundreds of years from now, there are textbooks about the short-sighted economics and political failures (triumphs, let us hope) of the 21st century, there will still be the Catholic Church and there will still be a pope.  Let us pray that he is a good one.