black smoke at the Vatican

There was black smoke over the Vatican again today -- smoke signaling that the voting cardinals within had reached no agreement on who the next pope might be.

Like corporations everywhere these days, the Vatican is sitting on untold wealth. But also like any corporation these days, there is some question whether the stockholders will put up with the endless hemorrhaging of financial assets -- a hemorrhaging that betokens not just a loss of wealth, but a loss of credibility as well.

In Los Angeles, the archdiocese is set to pay out a further $10 million as a means of concluding four cases related to priest sexual abuse. $10 million may be chump change on Vatican ledgers, but, as U.S. Senator Everett Dirksen was once incorrectly alleged to have said about the American economy, "A billion here and a billion there and pretty soon you're talking about real money."

How many "aberrations" and "anomalies" of failure will stockholders put up with before they decide their faith might better be placed elsewhere? Will Africa and Central America shore up the Vatican bastions in times to come? That seems to be the hope these days, but stockholders are stockholders and would like to see some positive payback for their faith and fortune.

Is black smoke such a bad thing?