Am I the only one who finds the whole black smoke/white smoke thing intriguing?

Chemicals are added to colour the smoke - black smoke signals failure to agree on a candidate, while white smoke means a new pope has been chosen.

The last time a new Pope was chosen, I was far too young to notice these things, and, as far as I can remember, my parents weren’t terribly interested. Now that I’m older, I’m far more interested in the traditions and rituals that are part of Catholicism. There are even times that I’m a bit jealous of those ceremonies, even while realizing that the Catholic church would probably be a poor fit for me. Then again, the Baptist church doesn’t seem to fit as well as it once did, either.

Seeing the photos of Pope John Paul II lying in state, reading about the black smoke and the white smoke, and even delving a bit into the history of the Catholic church has been wonderful. The sense of something ancient and solemn does something to add to the religious observance.

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