A Pope of Warmth, Compassion, Enlightenment and Longevity?

Let's see: going on 79 years old, former Hitler Youth Movement member, and called "the Enforcer". Apparently, this Pope has been fallible in the past.

As someone with ties to the church, I am deeply saddened.

How nice it would have been to see a Pope of color (since the overwhelming number of Catholics in the world are people of color themselves), one with a kinder heart rather than a bigger PR vehicle, one not so entrenched in all the gold and pomp of the Vatican but more knowledgeable of life as lived by real Catholics, perhaps even one who wasn't even a cardinal (the Catholic Church has in its histories Popes who were neither cardinal nor priest) and didn't have a record of thinking the only problem with the American church abuse scandal was that the parishioners got pissy about it.

But people of course have the right to argue for their limitations and to claim that a man most fallible is instead infallible. And they won't bring a single person into the Church with him either.

Personally, I think Catholics deserved better. Even among the listed contenders, I feel there were better choices. And I don't think a group of cardinals most of whom were too old to know life today is the best selection body. And the ultimate irony: this man probably will not sit long as Pope. Sure, the age 78 of today isn't the age 78 of even 30 years ago, but cardinals tend to live a rarified life of more fine dining than exercise, more contact with gold iconery than parishioners.