One would have to come from another planet if they were not aware of the changes taking place in the Roman Catholic Church. On Monday, 11th February 2013, Benedict XVI announced his retirement. Normally, the pope’s office becomes vacant as from the date that the current pope dies. So, this was a bit of a change, being the first resignation (or retirement) in almost 600 years. Gregory XII was the last resignation, in 1415.

Thus, today, Tuesday, 12th March 2013, marks the day that the Cardinals gather to begin the process of electing a new pope.

I do actually pray that the Roman church will be gifted with one who can lead this massive branch in the ways of Christ in the 21st century. It’s nice to know Protestants and evangelicals alike are no longer so anti-Catholic.

On another note, I want to share something I found absolutely hilarious. I hope this is not seen as blasphemous by my Roman Catholic brothers and sisters.

As many in the US will know, March is a month of college basketball mania. It goes by the name March Madness. Over this week, we will unfolding drama as many conference tournaments are played around the US. This all precedes the daddy of them all – the NCAA tournament – to find out who will be crowned national champion.

Each year, and increasingly more, a vigorous business has been launched as many ‘bracket gurus’ project who’s in the tournament and who’s out, also predicting the different seeds for the teams. Jerry Palm (of CBS Sports) and Joe Lunardi (of ESPN) are the 2 more well-known bracket projectors. They’ve been doing this for months already! And there’s even a special name give to such – bracketology.

Well, lo and behold, someone has created popebracket.com. I kid you not! There are 32 possible popes in the equation. The first round is titled the Sweet Sistine (rather than Sweet Sixteen). The next round is the Ecumenical Eight (rather than Elite Eight). Then we have the Flagellant Four (instead of Final Four). Lastly, we have the Diocese Duo.

I want to say it’s hard to believe this has been created. But I am actually not too surprised.

This, my friends, cracks me up!