Jesuits to vote for 'Black Pope'

One of the challenges that I face on a daily basis is trying to avoid being "sucked into" buying a London newspaper, by the ever increasingly misleading billboard(?) headlines.

However, the above headline which appeared in today's Telegraph initially led me to think that the Roman Catholic church had decided to abandon their historical conservatism, and decide to elect a new black Pope, ignoring the minor detail of having a living white Pope in the Vatican already.

Now I'm sure that a Black Pope would go down a storm in Africa, a continent that historically will have turned a blind eye to similar inconvenient truths, and creative enough to "lose" Pope Benedict XVI, in order to create a "vacancy" for a black Pope to be elected.

But one would have thought that Plan A - e.g. to bury the current Pope under a pile of eggs, in the style of Eggs Benedict - would have been "hatched" prior to announcing news of Plan B to vote for the Black Pope.

As you can imagine, the headline was nothing more than a misleading hook to attract readers (You'll never see me doing this, in this Blog!)

Apparently, the 'Black Pope' nickname refers to the simple black vestments worn by the Jesuits and to the power the leader holds. The Society of Jesus, which was founded in the 16th century by St Ignatius Loyola to be the "Pope's cavalry.

The outgoing leader, Father Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, 79, has served since 1983. He is the first head to ask to retire, a request granted by Pope Benedict.