''Pope John Paul II will take a secret to the grave when he is buried on Friday - the identity of the last cardinal he named in 2003, which he said at the time he wanted to keep close to his heart.
In Vatican parlance, that secrecy is known as 'in pectore'. In layman's terms, it means nobody else knows.
The Vatican yesterday said that the Pope had left no special instructions to his successor about the identity of the cardinal. Not even the new cardinal knows, and as the Pope is now dead, the honour that was his to bestow could have died with him.'' From: Secret dies with the Pontiff.
Maybe I'm making a bit of a leap here, but what if I, Big Time Patriot, AM the person that the Pope had selected as his Secret Cardinal?
I mean, it makes sense. If the Pope was selecting someone who was married with children, someone who wasn't even Catholic to be a Cardinal, maybe he'd want to keep it on the QT while he was alive?
Wow, since it is a secret they probably won't pay for my ticket to the big Pope Picking Pow-wow, I wonder if I should just invite myself along? Does the position come with a clothing allowance or do I need to get my wife to make me some robes out of our curtains?
You know, I can't really confirm it but I just have this feeling that I might have been the one the Pope had chosen...