Time for Conclave to consider woman Pope?

 

Time for Conclave to consider woman Pope?

 

The death of Pope Francis presents a golden opportunity for the Catholic Church to leap all the way from before the Middle Ages to the 21st Century. They could so do by considering electing a woman Pope.

 

That is not as preposterous as it sounds. Unbeknownst to most Catholics, the College of Cardinals Conclave, set to begin between 15 and 20 days from Francis’ April 21st death, can elect “any baptized man” to become Pope. That has happened 6 times in the 266 Papal selections (tho none since 1378).

It would take just 1 tiny rules change…replace the word ‘man’ with ‘person’ in the eligibility list. Voila, all those intelligent, compassionate, modern Catholic women become eligible to be Pope No. 267.

 

A woman Pope might just save the dying Catholic Church, at least in Europe and America where Catholics are abandoning an out of touch Catholicism. Much stems from the Church still resistant to popular lay Catholic beliefs supporting birth control, gay marriage, women priests and married priests, whether formalized or not.

 

If by some earthly miracle women will be into the mix when the voting starts, one more change would be cool. A new pellet should be added to the burning of the ballots, one that would display pink not white signaling election of the first woman Pope.