Post square 021213 ~ The More Things Change...

The Catholic church is facing division among its ranks. There are disagreements about issues such as contraception, homosexuality and the role of women.

Two-thirds of Catholics now live in developing countries, where values and focuses of faith differ from those in the secular West.

The new pope will need to figure out how to best communicate with all of his audience without alienating anybody.

There are a number of possible candidates for the papacy, from all over the world. The "favorite", however, is another European.

And the likelihood that there will be much attention given to the more liberal concerns is slim, since all of the cardinals who will be choosing the next pope were picked by Benedict and his like-minded predecessor.

The photo on the cover of the Post is an old shot of Pope Benedict, waving from the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica, just after his election. I chose a square inch of the landscape on the distant horizon for my composition and colored it with randomly chosen pencils.