Mass for the election of a Pope

Today at St Mary's, Forest Hall, Newcastle our Saturday morning EF Mass was 'For the election of a Pope'. We all prayed that our new pontiff would carry on the traditional mindset of Benedict XVI. I was concerned to read in our diocesan newspaper - Northern Cross - the report that "Parishioners call for a new vision". Why I was surprised I don't know as the article read "The Northern Cross, acting also for The Tablet, sought the opinion of three parishioners as they left morning Mass on Sunday, February 17." It is always concerning to right minded Catholics that anyone even reads "The Tablet" but more concerning that our own diocesan newspaper seems to align with it. Perhaps we should not be surprised that they took such a 'sweeping' poll of THREE parishioners. The fact that comments such as "will it be a good thing to bring in married priests?", "I would have liked him to have proposed a new vision for the Church", "the Church needs to engage with social, political and religious leaders", "we need to see power come down to the lowest level" were the level of comments made makes one worry about the level of Catholicity. We must remember that the Church is not a democracy, that the last time we had a 'new vision of the Church' was Vatican II with all the sorrow, upheaval & general malaise it left behind and we need to realise that the Church is there to GUIDE social, political and religious leaders, not come to a lowest common denominator agreement with them.