Would
today be the day? That's what everyone was wondering. It was Tuesday,
April 19, and we were back in that piazza.
Staring at that now-familiar sometimes white/sometimes black chimney.
And at noon, the smoke began to pour out...
But nothing anti-climactic this time. Just black smoke.
A repeat of the black smoke we'd seen last night. So we thought we'd
capture the
moment with a repeat of the picture we took last night.
Last night, Matt looked genuinely sad in the picture. Now he just looks
mad. Or like he ate some bad clams.
So after the smoke died down, we stood around awhile longer. Because,
as usual, we had absolutely nothing else to do.
And suddenly, people were looking back at the chimney. It was white
smoke! WHITE SMOKE! We have a Pope!?
People rushed up to the
front. It was white! Some random guy started
blowing an
air horn (why did he have an air horn?); and somehow the air horn gave
the moment even more
authority.
And then...?
Black smoke. And lots of it. Apparently the smoke guy was just having
some fun. And for the second day in a row, we were fooled.
And again, we were disappointed. (Or maybe I should say
I was disappointed.)
I didn't have the heart to
tell Matt that the white smoke had changed
back to black. So in this picture, he was
still excited - thinking we had a Pope. Eventually,
though, I broke the news to him - and we'd be heading back at 7pm
tonight.
And it also reminded us that we needed to be praying for our Cardinals.
The work of the Holy Spirit, and the Church, isn't just left up to
them. We're all the Body of Christ - and we need the prayers and
support of one other.
So hopefully our prayers will help for tonight's
vote?
