Dear Doves,
 
I'm not too quick to link this new pope to Malachy's prophecy.  The prophecy of Peter the Roman does not have a number attached to it - as all the previous popes did.  It is therefore possible he's not immediately to follow pope Benedict.  Since the cardinals wanted to avoid fulfilling this prophecy by electing someone named Peter, I assume they did, then it might make sense that Peter the Roman will appear next and fairly quickly.  So, perhaps they'll go with Peter as the next pope and say he doesn't fulfill the prophecy because he's not immediately after Benedict.  Also, our 8 year old son was watching tv coverage of the pope last night and said, "how long do you think he'll be around?" I said, " I don't know.  How long do you think he'll be around?"  And he said, "I don't know, maybe a month."
 
Joe M