Having endured thousands of years of the Vatican's direct influence on their domestic affairs, Italians have a few idioms that are dedicated to the passing away of a Pope and the election of a new one. One of these sayings is morto un Papa se ne fa un altro (once a Pope is dead a new one will replace him), an expression which basically means that despite superficial changes, nothing is really going to change the status quo.

Another interesting idiom is ogni morte di papa (at every Pope's death), an idiom that indicates that an 'X' event recurs only at very rare occasions in time (i.e. the Boston Red Sox win the World Series at every Pope's death, or similarly, good service from a taxi driver in Beijing happens at every Pope's death, and so forth).

Ogni morte di Papa the Chinese central government sends a message to the Vatican stating that the tiny parasite state embedded in the Rome territory should cut diplomatic relations with Taiwan, recognize the government of the PRC as the only and legitimate representative of the Chinese people and not interfere with the country's internal affairs. This was the substance of the message sent out by Mr Qin Gang - the Chinese Foreign Office spokesman - to salute the election of Benedict XVI as the new Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, as reported today by Xinhua agency.

We believe the Vatican will take the message from the Chinese government with the same attitude the Italians define as morto un Papa se ne fa un altro: no change in the status quo.

Image taken from La Repubblica's website