Betting on the Pope

THE EDITOR, Madam:

On May 8, US President Trump was communicating by speaker phone with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who sounded subservient as he discussed trade tariffs with his US counterpart. It was live television at its very worst, but, perhaps by divine intervention, a smoke signal was sighted from the Vatican chimney in Rome. meaning that for a short while at least, the presidential mafioso played second fiddle to a new Roman Catholic Pope.

The cardinal chosen in the Papal Conclave spent many years as a missionary in Peru, and obtained citizenship there, having been born in Chicago 69 years ago. Media mavens went into overdrive covering details of the first American-born Pope, a previously unknown cleric making global headlines.

Not being an adherent to any religion myself, but always interested in what turns others into believers, I researched several articles the previous day to learn about the 133 celibate senior citizens who were the conclave participants, dressed in identical scarlet mozzettas with white rochets, topped off by scarlet zucchettos. One article featured front-runners from several countries in Europe, Africa, the Far East and the Americas; 11 cardinals were listed, but the eventual winner was not among them. Being a keen fan of soccer which has 11 players on each team, it occurred to me that every major club in Europe has a team made up of similar nationalities to the 11 cardinals.

The analogy strengthened after the Pope was chosen; St. Peter’s Square had a crowd of about 50,000 – average size of a soccer crowd at major games in most European leagues. That Vatican crowd was jumping up and down, cheering loudly and waving flags — soccer fans do that every week when their team wins.

The ecstasy among supporters in Rome was ignited by the colour of the smoke signal coming from the Sistine Chapel — soccer fans show appreciation when goals are scored by setting off coloured smoke flares. Las Vegas bookies gave this Pope only a one per cent chance of being chosen — betting is another big factor in soccer matches, too. My only regret is that the Italian cardinal from Jerusalem was not chosen as Pope; he has a most wonderful name: Pierbattista Pizzaballa , imagine Papa Pizzaballa.

BERNIE SMITH

Parksville, BC

Canada