Unless you've been living under a rock, they chose a new Pope yesterday, Pope Francis I. I watched this particular conclave with interest, not because I'm Catholic, but because the book I'm currently writing takes place in Renaissance Italy, about a cook who was responsible for feeding several conclaves that had to choose a Pope. I wrote more about that in a previous blog post.
Tasting Life Twice
Author Crystal King muses on life, history, writing and food.
Posts about Pope Benedict XVI:
The Renaissance Papal Conclave: What Did They Eat?
Pope Benedict XVI
Scappi
Swiss Guard
Bartolomeo Scappi
Blog
Catholic Church
cibo
Cinquecento
conclave
food
Italian History
Julius III
Papal conclave
Pope
Pope Benedict
pope resigns
Renaissance
scandal
Sistine Chapel
Western Schism
The last month has been a month of massive tumult for the Catholic Church. For the first time in 400 years a Pope is resigning. There have only been five Popes to resign and all of them resigned under great duress, or in the case of Gregory XII, he did it to end the Western Schism. This is the first Pope to cite "health" problems as a reason to resign and the first to revise rules regarding the convening of the Papal conclave so that it can be convened sooner than in the past (usually they have to wait 15 days). I have a bunch of my own speculations about that, but there are a million other places that the woes of the Church can be debated.