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Thursday 5 March 2015

Whatever Will the Media Have to Say About the Pope?

John Allen, reporting on the resurgence of "the nasty" at the Vatican:
Over the centuries, court politics at the Vatican sometimes have had a seriously nasty side. If anyone was wondering whether that aspect of its culture had been killed off in the Francis era, or had simply gone dormant, late February 2015 provided a fairly clear answer...
The focus this time is Cardinal George Pell...
L’Espresso also revealed the minutes of a meeting from last September in which some veteran Vatican cardinals objected to various aspects of Pell’s leadership, with one bitterly referring to what’s happening as a form of “Sovietization,” meaning totalitarian control.
On Friday, the Vatican released its own statement denouncing such leaks as “illegal,” calling the criticism of Pell “undignified and petty,” and backing his performance by saying it’s proceeding with “continuity and efficacy.”
The spectacle is eerily reminiscent of the “Vatileaks” scandal of 2012, when a tidal wave of supposedly confidential Vatican documents appeared in the Italian press. 
That can't be true. The two kerfuffles can't be anything alike.
If they were, wouldn't the secular press be full of stories telling us what a weak administrator the Pope is? that he has lost control of his Curia and his Church?

Snarking aside, it's a Sisyphean... Sysiphusian.... Syssiph - impossibly difficult task, and no pope will accomplish it this side of eternity.
They all need and deserve our prayers.

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