meet him, people grabbing to kiss his hand. Catholics just can't seem to get enough of hand-smooching the higher-ups. Cardinals must walk around with permanently damp hands. I don't mean it as a criticism. At any rate, I'll be the first to admit that Arooba was radioactively charismatic. A regular Catholic Bishop Tutu. Shoo-in of the Fisherman. You could just see him in that white soutane on the balcony, bestowing his first papal blessing on a million swooning Catholics. Ladbrokes, the London oddsmakers, had him at even money. Verguenza was at 6:1. Dwayne Cardinal Kanu they had at 112:1. There being 112 cardinals, this was not what you would call encouraging. Time to go negative. Let me state for the record: I don't like to go negative, but as my mentor, Nick, used to say, "At least you can say you considered not going negative." I laid another brick of Franklins in front of Angelo. The next day my favorite Vatican rag ran a page-one story on animism, from which the Irish missionaries in Africa had converted Cardinal Arooba, along with a killer quote -- from someone identified as one of the world's "ultimate authorities" on animism -- about how animists believe that the spirits of dead animals live on and can even be dangerous. The quote continued, "Not that Cardinal Arooba still adheres to these stern beliefs, so far as we are aware." Bull's-eye, Angelo. "Get this out to every reporter and producer here," I said to Lorraine. I'd