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eBook Category: Science Fiction Nebula Award(R) Winner
eBook Description: While sipping drinks at a cafe in Vatican City, an eclectic gathering of pontificators discuss the controversial Papal election going on across the street ... and the possibility that the next Pope may be a robot.

eBook Publisher: Fictionwise.com, Published: Universe 1, ed. Terry Carr, 1971
Fictionwise Release Date: April 2002

101 Reader Ratings:

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Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: eReader (PDB) [25 KB] , ePub (EPUB) [32 KB] , Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [11 KB] , Portable Document Format (PDF) [56 KB] , Palm Doc (PDB) [12 KB] , Microsoft Reader (LIT) [63 KB] , Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [83 KB] , hiebook (KML) [55 KB] , Sony Reader (LRF) [37 KB] , iSilo (PDB) [10 KB] , Mobipocket (PRC) [13 KB] , Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [40 KB] , OEBFF Format (IMP) [20 KB]
Words: 3190
Reading time: 9-12 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
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All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED

This is the morning everyone has waited for, when at last the robot cardinal is to be elected Pope. There can no longer be any doubt of the outcome. The conclave has been deadlocked for many days between the obstinate advocates of Cardinal Asciuga of Milan and Cardinal Carcifo of Genoa, and word has gone out that a compromise is in the making. All factions now are agreed on the selection of the robot. This morning I read in Osservatore Romano that the Vatican computer itself has taken a hand in the deliberations. The computer has been strongly urging the candidacy of the robot. I suppose we should not be surprised by this loyalty among machines. Nor should we let it distress us. We absolutely must not let it distress us.

"Every era gets the Pope it deserves," Bishop FitzPatrick observed somewhat gloomily today at breakfast. "The proper Pope for our times is a robot, certainly. At some future date it may be desirable for the Pope to be a whale, an automobile, a cat, a mountain." Bishop FitzPatrick stands well over two meters in height and his normal facial expression is a morbid, mournful one. Thus it is impossible for us to determine whether any particular pronouncement of his reflects existential despair or placid acceptance. Many years ago he was a star player for the Holy Cross championship basketball team. He has come to Rome to do research for a biography of St. Marcellus the Righteous.

We have been watching the unfolding drama of the papal election from an outdoor cafe several blocks from the Square of St. Peter's. For all of us, this has been an unexpected dividend of our holiday in Rome; the previous Pope was reputed to be in good health and there was no reason to suspect that a successor would have to be chosen for him this summer.