The Papal Election from a Young Catholic's Perspective

Today- for the first time ever- I am hosting a guest blogger here!  The following is my 11 year old son's journal for today.  He wrote so honestly about our special day yesterday that I thought he said it all better than I could.  

So-- here are some thoughts on the Papal election for the perspective of a very young Catholic--

 This week, we found ourselves in front of the computer for lengthy amounts of time.  We were “smoke watching.”  We watched EWTN and the Vatican T.V. for news of a new pope.

            Since the Cardinals in conclave who were voting couldn’t come out until we had a new pope, they used smoke signals to tell us if a new pope had been elected.  

            Well, on the afternoon of March the 13^th, 2013, after waiting for an hour and a half, doing nothing but watching birds who landed on the chimney, we finally got white smoke.  And there was a lot of it!  It billowed out like crazy for like five minutes!  (Fortunately, the birds had left the chimney at this point.)  

            And, then, after waiting another hour, our new pope came out!  He chose the name Pope Francis, gave a blessing, and went back inside.  I will never forget the day I did nothing but watch birds for an hour and a half because that was the day our new pope was elected!