UNITED STATES
New York Daily News
Denis Hamill
No more smoke.
Let that puff of white smoke that rose from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel on Wednesday be the last smoke blowing from the Vatican under Pope Francis in his lifetime.
No more smoke. No more “DaVinci Code” mirrors. No more coverups.
For the new Pope to have a prayer in saving the church from irrelevancy in this new century, he has to open wide the creaky old doors and let the sunshine of 2013, Year of Our Lord, shine in and let the winds of change start at St. Peter’s Square.
I long ago gave up for Lent giving up anything for Lent. But I have followed the matters of the church with an old altar boy’s eye. I respect the beliefs of people like my devout Roman Catholic mother, who found solace from bigotry in Northern Ireland and immigrant poverty in this life with her belief that her next eternal life would be a better one.
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