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Show A The fine Italian hand is visible enough in the struggle to elect a new Pope. Ambition for power and place is strong in the human breast. Years of self-abnegation cannot quench it. A man may preach for half a life time that mortals are worms of the dust, butwhen the opportunity comes there is awakened, don in his heart, a desire to be the big worm. It will always be so. It is a joy to most men to receive the homage of the multitude, to yearn for the joy of commanding the hosts below be-low him. Not many can, outgrow these desires; not many church men even can train themselves to imitate the Master's example and when put to the test say: "My kingdom is not of this world." Hence there is some of the shrewdest kind of politics being worked in the convention that is to elect a new Pope. In the language of the United States: "May the best man win." |