I’d say they read the winds and see the signs coming.
When a pope dies and they choose the next one, they make it into such a big spectacle, no? Like it was divinely ordained, the whole black smoke, white smoke thing. I mean it worked in the days pre-science & tech, but they continue so as to keep up tradition and also make it into this grand symbolic shit. And I think it works.
But also I was thinking last time they chose a pope, they must have known they’d probably need an American pope. Seeing how the US is behaving; more importantly, how it was behaving by the time 2025 rolled around.
When my screen showed me Trump being Trumpy about Pope Leo, I was thinking: damn the Cats have survived 2000 years, seen regimes and monarchs and governments fall and yet they persevere and now I know why. They know their politics, man!
Religion and god, sure, but also yk, POLITICS! We can talk of God-ordained priesthood all day long, and I appreciate how much the symbolism stands, and also I can even acknowledge divine intervention in giving wisdom to the Conclave that ultimately selects (elects?) the Bishop of Rome. But it doesn’t take away from the fact that however a Bishop becomes a Pope, other men are involved; it’s like arguing Bible is not written by God because it was literally technically written by men. Sometimes, inspiration is god-breathed.
It got me thinking that this is why when you put people who deserve their spots in governance and not based on their pedigree, you get good collective wisdom!! On a tangent, this is of course what democracy wants, but that falls flat on its face because people are dumb.
Meanwhile, the Cats have smart people in governance, who've spent their lives in the game – and only the game – not worrying about salary and family, their logic and calculations tempered by religion... this is why The Vatican survives. And thrives quietly.
Regardless of their politics and religious takes, these men spend their whole lives primarily thinking about how to make the Catholic religion go on. They have their prayers and meditation to calm them down, they regularly make confessions so they are less burdened with guilt and shit – I mean this religion comes with its own built-in therapist sessions, how can it fail? – and they're unbothered with fashion trends and luxurious living and shit and they have their hands in every single space on human-occupied earth so their intel, when they want, is impressive.
All due respects to Catholics and the church, of course. I am just exercising a little political sociology here!
