Actually, although I really do not agree with how the mainstream media is reviewing his life, I personally find the whole ritual extremely fascinating. From cracking him on the head with a silver hammer, calling out his first name three times, to the actual voting for the successor, it's quite a show!
Not to mention hauling the corpse through the streets, the reading of his "will," in which he leaves no property to anyone but reviews his own life in a surprisingly candid fashion, and the sewing of the ballots together with needle and thread...
There is a great site reproducing an article in
London magazine about the process in 1903:
How The Pope Is Elected (1903)
Little has changed since then. Indeed, since the 12th Century, though JPII tried to clean it up a bit. Quite fascinating!
I also read an article in the NY Times Magazine today concerning a public appearance in 1991 at the shrine of the mysterious "Black Madonna" in Czestochowa, Poland, that I thought was intriguing:
"Then he spoke. He listed all the countries represented at the event, giving special mention to Russia's "passing from slavery..." When, in his list of countries, which he delivered in Polish, he came to the United States, he asked his audience, "Do you know where that is?" And then half under his breath, but loud enough for his translator to hear, he muttered ruefully, "Perhaps too well."