Why They Ran

Hat tip to Kathy Shaidle at Relapsed Catholic.

A must read from Peggy Noonan at the Catholic Educator's Resource Center.

Did you see them running to St. Peter's Square as the bells began to toll? They came running in from the offices and streets of Rome, running in their business suits, in jeans with backpacks over their shoulders. The networks kept showing it in their side shots as they filled time between the ringing of the bells and the balcony scene.

So many came running that by the end, by the time Benedict XVI was announced, St. Peter's and the streets leading to it were as full as they'd been two weeks ago, at the funeral of John Paul II.

Why did they run? Why did this ancient news ? "We have a pope" ? representing such irrelevant-seeming truths and such an archaic institution ? send them running?

Why did they gather? Why did they have to hear?

Go read the rest and be edified.