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Tuesday 23 December 2014

Am I one of those people of whom I complain? am I being played by the media?

I speak no Italian, (or rather, only opera libretto Italian,) and have not found an English translation of the Holy Father's Christmass greeting to his fellow laborers in the Vatican Vineyards.

So I wonder, have I jumped to conclusions based on what someone reports that the Holy Father said rather than on what Francis himself actually said?

Now some conservative, (as opposed to traditionalist, or even Traditionalist,) Catholic voices, are quite adamant that there was no rancor in either the message or its reception, that this is just more of the ignoracne or sensationalism of the secular media.

But John Allen, IME, has a very good handle on these things and is not prone to hyperbole.
In a thinly veiled critique, the pope didn’t name any potentates whom he regards as infected by those diseases, but his words left no doubt that he doesn’t regard them as merely theoretical....
The cardinals were not amused. The speech was met with tepid applause, and few were smiling...
And this:
“I have to say, I didn’t feel great walking out of that room today,” one senior Vatican official said, who had been in the Vatican’s Sala Clementina for the speech and who spoke on the condition he not be identified.
I understand that the pope wants us to live up to our ideals, but you wonder sometimes if he has anything positive to say about us at all,” the official said, who’s been in Vatican service for more than two decades.
For the record, this was an official who describes himself as an “enthusiast” over the direction being set by Pope Francis.
The body language on Monday among the cardinals and archbishops who make up the Vatican’s power structure suggest that reaction wasn’t isolated.


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