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Usually, people get excited when somebody among the cardinals of the Church is mentioned as a possible successor to the deceased or in this particular case, to a resigned Pope as with Benedict XVI.

Unfortunately, the tradition shows that who enters the conclave as a papable often exits as a poor performer.

That, of course, is not all the time the trend. But it should alert us not to rejoice over just the mention of Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila, now a member of the exclusive club of electors of the Pope, as a possible successor.

Of course, one can immediately understand how Reuters had named Tagle as a papabile. In short, because of his youth and his close proximity to the Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Tagle is considered a potential successor to the papacy.

But his youth and his elevation to the Red Hat just came shortly before the announcement by Pope Benedict XVI of his resignation as Supreme Roman Pontiff.

But, who knows? As had been once predicted by somebody, when God so wills, it will be done. Precisely, those same reasons why he could not possibly be selected are exactly the same reasons why the timing was just perfect for him to be eyed as potential successor to Benedict XVI.

While all the rules of human logic focuses on a lot of other names than Tagle, still it must not be ruled out that Pope John Paul II was surprised that he was selected by his peers as Pope.

A lot has been said about the mistakes that may have brought down Pope Benedict XVI in his management of the Vatican and as Supreme pontiff of the 1 billion Roman Catholic Church.

He is best remembered by most for the sex scandals of priests as well as some financial shenanigan.

Of course, he was not a party to the fiscal anomalies. But he still cannot escape blame for failure to rein in some Curia personnel in charge of the Church finances.

In short, the lack of accounting and banking expertise by many clergymen is one reason why there has been so many failures to show the finances of the Vatican. And in some cases, the mistakes were due precisely to the gullibility of some financial managers who fell easy prey to scams like Archbishop Marcinkus.

So, the only thing we can do is pray God to guide with His wisdom the electors of the College of Cardinals. And may Easter Sunday, the date for the election of the Pope, also usher in a new dawn for the Roman Catholic church.

One, however, must credit Benedict XVI some major accomplishments, especially in launching of the new evangelization.

Few have been aware of it. But these achievements are mirrored to a certain extent by the establishment of some 87 new seminaries (Redemptorist Mater) in as many nations in the world.

We have one in Manila. And there are many seminarians from various other countries as well as local diocese in that seminary.

These seminaries have already churned our several thousands of priests. Missionary priests.

These seminarians are mostly children of Neo-Catechumen members who have devoted years to what they call walling in the Lord.

And then, there are also the misio ad gentes. These are Christian families, mostly with children, who are uprooted from their homes and sent abroad to foreign countries where they live among non-believers or the lapse of faithful. They do nothing extraordinary except live Christian lives. And, as usually happens, they soon touch the hearts of their communities.

It may be recalled that in Europe, hundreds and thousands of families had been brought back to the fold of Catholicism by these misio ad gentes. The lives of presents. And their children speak about their love for Christ. Yes, each group has a Neo-priest among them.

For the moment, these have been dispatched to mostly Europeans countries. Asian also. In the Asian continents, among the countries where there are misio ad gentes These include Taiwan, China, Indonesia, India, Japan, Hong Kong. Even Mongolian.

In Europe, the most recent evidence of the impact of the new evangelization is the sight of more than thousand young rushing to the main altar to respond to the call for priestly vocations in Madrid. And there were also thousands of young girls who, tears streaming from their eyes, also rushed to offer themselves to light as cloistered nuns.

Have you heard of these “miracles”?

No, because they are mostly hidden even by governments. But they have been captured on video by members of the various Neo Catechumenal the communities. They hardly boast of them. That is why, insofar as they are concerned, Pope Benedict XVI was a superman who retired from his successful mission of spreading the Good News of Christ to the world.*

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