Even if you are not Catholic - or Christian for that matter - there’s at least some interest in who will succeed Pope John Paul II. He was a dynamic person no matter whether you agreed with him or not. The early 1980’s were heady days if you followed the Gdansk shipyard strikes in Poland. For those shipyard workers to face down a repressive regime took some courage and some of it came from their former Cardinal Wojtyla who became Pope John Paul II in 1978.

John Paul II also reached out to other faiths including Islam and Judaism with some apologies and implied apologies about crusades, pogroms and other dark chapters in church history. Who can forget his presence at the Western Wall which is a surviving remnant of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, destroyed by the Romans in 68 C.E.

Starting tomorrow, the 125 Catholic Cardinals in the world will meet in the Sistine Chapel in what’s called a conclave to elect the new pope. A temporary chimney installed at the Chapel will signal the election of a new pope with the emitting of white smoke. At some point after that, the new pope will appear before throngs of excited people waiting to hear the news. See some portions of the Sistine Chapel ceiling painted by Michelangelo Buonarroti.