And some of us ex-Catholics still read National Catholic Reporter (and hence knew a bit about the papabiles) because, after all, there are over a billion Catholics on the planet.

Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the doctrine's reach is global, and that Vatican politics aren't local--in fact, they are pretty damn global too.

As I said before, the fundamentalist conservative First World politicians, religio-politicians, and the corporate Christians who finance them are going to be partying tonight.