Pope JP The Great ---

Pope JP II has been interred. Something from Shakespeare comes to mind, but I'll leave that as an exercise for the reader. PJP II will be a tough act to follow. Perhaps the next pope won't even try - but don't bet on it.
THeres a lot of talk now about the possibility of a pope from Latin America, or perhaps from Asia, or perhaps even from Africa. But don't bet on it. Before his death, JP II hand-picked his successor, PJP III. He tipped it off by having

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone announce the banning of The DaVinci Code, the first book to gain such a distinction in many years. Like earlier books on the Vatican List, sales are bound to soar; except pretty much everybody has already read the book. For the few who haven't read it, it presents a competing myth regarding the life of Jesus. Don't want to spoil it, so I won't say any more.
I wish the Church didn't have such a tin ear, though. It seems to have been made a requirement for all the media interviewees recalling the pope's life to remark on how much he "loved the young people". The Vatican should know better: when a squeaky-voiced pop star talks like that he gets arrested. As were a huge number of the pope's former employees; in spite of his insistence that they were above secular law. The love of JP II's priests for "the young people" was so prevalent, and so scandalous, that JP II finally had to give up on the idea of priestly immunity, and allow them to face prosecution in the secular courts.
Note: I don't think JP II "loved the young people" in any inappropriate way; I just think the comments about his "love for the young people" demonstrates that the Church hierarchy is in denial as to the extent that their employment policies attract a disproportionate number of sexually deviant "lovers of the young people" to the priesthood.
Perhaps Pope JP III will revisit the issues of celibacy and ordination of women. But don't bet on it.