My Suggestion for Conclave

If the various restraining orders that the Vatican has filed on me are any indication, the Catholic Church really isn't interested in any of my kick ass ideas.

This week we saw the election of Pope Benedict XVI, so I would like to extend my congratulations to the Holy See for his landslide victory (Hell, I don't even think that Bush carried Texas with more than 2/3 the vote).

But in thinking about the entire process, something really bothered me...

You see, the Pope is about as close to God as you can get in human form for the Catholic faith. I'm not saying the Pope is God. But you have to imagine that when the Pope dies, he pretty much goes to the "10 Sins or Less" line at the Pearly Gates.

But with conclave, you have fallible humans electing someone to this lofty and prestigious position. Church law is fallible because it is written by man, and the process is fallible because it is conducted by men (sorry ladies).

And since the whole basis of Christian faith is based on the tenant of Free Will, you have to think that maybe these folks get it wrong every once in a while.

So I have a solution:

Instead of having the Cardinals elect the Pope, we should draw it out of a hat.
All of the Cardinals eligible to be Pope would put their names in the Papal Hat, and someone would shake it up, and then a name would be drawn.

Now, before you condemn me to Hell, I have a reason behind this. If you believe in God, wouldn't you want God to have a hand in all of this? I mean, leaving the leader of your faith in the hands of a bunch of fallible humans is a huge ass risk. So I think we'd all feel a little more comfortable if the "Hand of God" had a little more to do with the entire process.