Smoke became the main topic in Rome

By Joel Sember

	Joel Sember

The conclave began on Monday, making smoke the main topic of conversation. Late in the evening we caught our first glimpse of the stuff, black and thick against the sunset. Tuesday morning the smoke was 10 minutes early. Then smoke came out a second and a third time. More smoke meant only the same thing - still no Pope.

That afternoon I headed down to the piazza around 6 p.m. All of a sudden, some elderly women ran by me. "White smoke!" they shouted.

The piazza started filling up fast. I worked my way through the crowd. In about five minutes, I had made my way to the front. Mike Brummond had been holding a spot there since 8 a.m. Bp. Zubik had joined him about an hour before. Just off the plane from Green Bay, he had come to the piazza early, thinking that we would soon have a new Pope.

	Pope Benedict XVI
	• Related articles from this week

As we waited, the bells began ringing. I could feel myself getting nervous. Then the curtains moved and a cardinal came out. "Habemus papam!" he said.

As our new Pope stepped out on the balcony, I thought, "What's Cardinal Ratzinger doing up there on the balcony?" Perhaps he was thinking the same thing. He gave us his first blessing as Holy Father.

It was hard at first for me to accept the fact that some cardinal had become pope. I have read biographies of past popes, but these always seemed to be stories about the man who one day would be pope. It was inevitable.

This time, I realized there was no inevitability. Any cardinal could have come out on that balcony. We put the whole church in the hands of some man who is just as flawed and human as the rest of us. It is an incredible act of faith in God's grace. We are giving someone a job that no one can do. Only God's grace makes it possible.

The vocation to priesthood is similar. I will one day stand in front of a parish and someone will think, "What's Joel doing up there?" I will probably be thinking the same thing. No one really belongs in the sanctuary; it is only God's grace that makes it possible.

The next time I saw Benedict XVI was at his installation Mass. I was singing in the choir, sitting in exactly the same place I had been at the funeral (for John Paul II). Benedict passed by and gave us a little blessing. This time, I had to admit he looked very much like a real Holy Father. I think I was getting used to the change.

(Sember is a seminarian from the Green Bay Diocese studying at the North American College in Rome.)