Just in case you hadn’t noticed, we’re now well into 2013, the electoral mayhem is finally over and, lo and behold, the sun is still rising from the East.

But our ceasefire was short lived because as soon as the ballot sheets were put aside, we had the ‘pleasure’ of yet another election, this time for a new Pope.

Now let me set one thing straight – from the little I’ve seen and heard of the new Pontiff, I like him. I definitely like him much better than the previous one, and not because I have any delusions that he will change things (much), but because he seems to be a little bit more on the ball and a tad more human.

But, as much as I like the new Pope, the mere sight of hordes of cardinals, bishops, archbishops, and vicars, wearing more than their body weight in expensive and pompous vestments, makes me break out in hives.

More disturbingly it makes me wonder what Jesus would have thought had he been here today to witness all that is being done ‘in his name’.

I mean let’s face it, this is not an attakk viljakk fuq il-Knisja, this is sheer observation. Jesus was the champion of humility, so I doubt that gold rings, Prada shoes, long golden gowns and, funny expensive hats, would have sat well with him.

And remember, Jesus wasn’t only poor and humble, he was also a rebel. He questioned authority and spoke out against injustice, discrimination and undue hardships.

Jesus did not remain silent in the face of discrimination. He did not remain silent not even when faced with death, let alone when faced with the weak argument that something had always been ‘that’ way.

Jesus believed that silence amounted to complicity, so he spoke out, he rebelled, and he paid for it with his life.

And now, more than 2000 years later, whilst women and men all over the world speak out and fight against inequality and sexism, the Catholic Church doesn’t even consider for one second opening the discussion of the possibility of women’s ordination… because, they say, they don’t have the authority to do so.

Women have had the right to vote for over 90 years now; with every year that goes by more women outnumber men at universities; people who believe that a woman’s place is in the home, barefoot and pregnant are almost extinct; and yet, the Church sticks to its guns in saying that it wasn’t in Jesus’ plan to have women priests.

A few years ago an American priest, Fr Roy Bourgeois was ex-communicated and dismissed from the priesthood after 40 years of service, not because he was a paedophile, not because he scared several children for life, and not because he murdered anyone, but because he attended and delivered the ordination of a Catholic woman at a Unitarian Universalist Church.

With all this boggling in my mind, yesterday I joined the masses and spent a whole hour staring at my TV screen waiting to get a glimpse of the new Pope.

With every minute that passed my awe grew bigger and bigger, and my ambivalence eventually turned into a physiological inability to look away because, for the life of me, I cannot understand how and why so many people will still brave the weather, the crowds and the long wait, just to be first to see the new Pope.

With respect to all believers, I just don’t get it.

I wish I did, but I don’t.

To my mind, the conflict (or rather the gaping hole) between The Church’s ways and the teachings of Jesus, reaches its highest peak at the sight of The Vatican or anything related to it.

Pope Benedict XVI once said that “...the history of Christianity would have had a very different development if it had not been for the generous support of many women... who played an effective and precious role in spreading the Gospel. Their witness cannot be forgotten.”

Having said that however, no Pope has ever dared question or object to the tradition of automatically and without basis, excluding women from the higher echelons of their religious society.

How that constitutes following in Jesus’ footsteps, I’ll never know.