EDITORIAL - Don't get hopes too high on Tagle

Filipinos should not get their hopes too high on Cardinal Luis Tagle becoming the next pope. While it is exhilarating to know he is being considered to be in the running as a successor to the resigned Benedict XVI, common sense tells us to keep our feet on the ground.

If you think the Philippines is highly politicized, then you know little of the Vatican. The veneer of unshaky smoothness that envelops the day-to-day Catholic Church is deceiving, and only because faith presupposes everything.

But scratch the surface a little, and you'll discover that even seemingly inconsequential parish assignments in your little town in the province truly have strings that go all the way to some center of power within the Church. Ask the priest in that crumbling chapel in the hills.

This is not to say Tagle does not have a shot. By simply being a cardinal elector (those aged 80 and above on the day a vacancy occurs in the papacy are excluded) he becomes a candidate automatically.

But with age excluding Filipino Cardinals Ricardo Vidal and Gaudencio Rosales, Tagle is assured of only one vote -- his own. Every other cardinal not otherwise disqualified is in the running. With the papacy as culmination of a lifelong vocation, trust the race to be very tight.

It is in fact instructive that many of the stories now coming out regarding the papal succession seem too focused on the non-Italians, from whose ranks most popes traditionally come. It seems too contrived that our attention is being directed at the Africans, Latinos and Asians.

For if one goes by the numbers (of 209 cardinals, only 118 are eligible to vote) those from these regions only count themselves or one or two others. Italians, on the other hand, come in double figures, a fact suspiciously not being given too much play in the stories.

Curiously, while Vidal and Rosales and other cardinals aged 80-plus cannot vote, they can still be voted upon. This means that while Vidal and Rosales cannot vote for Tagle, they are themselves in the running and can be voted upon, thus taking away some potential votes for Tagle.

Nothing is impossible. But let us not put ourselves in a position where the risk of disappointment and stress is high. If it comes, it comes, but let us not dwell on it. Today is Valentine's Day. Let us love ourselves and our fellow men and leave Tagle to the wisdom of God.