The Pope has just passed, and I think it might be time to rewatch the excellent film “Conclave” again.

I’m not religious in any shape or form, but I was once a semi-serious candidate for a position as an altar boy at the Catholic church adjacent to my old school, Saint Victor’s, on Holloway Drive in West Hollywood, Los Angeles.

I attended St. Vic’s for four years and mostly had nuns as teachers. I also attended Mass every Friday. It was a very strict school, where corporal punishment was common and an effective deterrent. The principal at the time, Sister Mary, would pull out her ping-pong racket and whack the living daylights out of my disobedient schoolmates – especially a fellow from our street called Kevin McKenzie, who was a serial offender of the school’s rigid rules.

I’m not sure if I was a particularly obedient student or just never got caught. In any case, as far as I can remember, I never felt the full force of Sister Mary’s wrath on my uniform-clad behind.

I took this photograph about a decade ago during a visit to St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, Rome.

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