The Live Conclave.

The Conclave is such... fun!

This beggars belief, but is apparently true. Some of the American Cardinals in Rome had already started to organise daily briefings with the US press.

So, before the election of a Pope the Cardinals take a short rest from their daily activities to have a chat with their buddies, the journalists, and keep in touch with the folks at home.

Cool, man. Or, as Cardinal Dolan would say, “that's a biggie, dude”.

One cannot escape the suspicion the Cardinals are talents stolen to the stage. I'd have thought better of Wuerl, but not after the matter with Father Guarnizo after all.

The impression remains of people interested mainly in a stage, and unable to resist the temptation of the media circus of the year.

For shame.

Mundabor

 

Share this:

The Chavez Reblog

Mundabor's Blog

The numerous fans of “President” Chavez (one of the biggest entertainers and muppets of our time) were already well aware of his many talents. The suavity with which the man tramples common sense is, indeed, worth of admiration as very few of us would, even in our much smaller sphere of influence, dare to make such asses of ourselves.

Chavez is different. He thrives in making you laugh. Like a court jester, he relinquishes every desire of dignity and self-esteem to achieve his aim to entertain and delight. A Rigoletto without the brains. He is at the same level of that other great comic talent, Mugabe; but he has the oil reserves, which makes the utter devastation of Venezuela slower and less pervasive than what Mugabe could, after a considerable and prolonged effort, achieve in Zimbabwe.

In his effort to diseducate and entertain, “President” Chavez has now discovered a new…

View original post 175 more words

Conclave: End Of The Beauty Contest

The interview circus – or should I say “beauty contest” – abruptly came to a halt today, with several interviews from prominent Cardinals, mainly American ones, even cancelled after scheduling.

It was very sad to see Princes of the Church behave like children when a TV camera is around, or like reality TV starlettes exploiting the limelight for all it’s worth. Instead of dedicating themselves to their institutional duties or to prayer, many of them have tried to consolidate their “star” status (like Ouellet, I am afraid, or Turkson, or Pell), or get some popularity whilst they may (like Sandri, possibly the most shameless of them all), or play “progressive” for who knows which obscure reason (O’Brien) or talk to journalists because the limelight to them is simply oxygen (Dolan) and they can’t imagine living without. Not pretty.

All this was stopped today, and the interview embargo lets all those Cardinals all too ready to grant interviews (including Ouellet) deservedly appear immature.

The Church is not supposed to care for the opinion and the support of the world, and a Prince of the Church is supposed to, literally, incarnate this principle. What has happened in the last weeks is another indication of the deterioration of the quality of religious personnel precipitated by 50 years of Vatican II-induced collusion with the world.

I am glad this has now stopped. Let the thousands of journalists now converging on Rome play fantasy conclave as much as they like; the Bride Of Christ does not seek the approval of the mob, and those who do are unworthy of the tunic.

Mundabor

Conclave, Vatileaks, Efficiency

It is no surprise, but laudable nevertheless, that some Cardinals (yesterday the talk was of Brazilian ones, this morning I found no mention of national groups) have asked to be at least briefed concerning the Vatileaks report.

Truly, this matter very well decribes the way such matters are dealth with within the Leonine Walls. A Conclave should take place without the participants being informed about the most serious matter on the table; without knowing whether there are homosexuals among them, whom the former Pope allowed to attend the Conclave undisturbed; and without having a clear idea of the scale of the problem, so that they can order their thoughts concerning the most suited man for the job accordingly.

A culture of incompetence feeds – and is in turn fed by – a culture of secrecy which cannot hide the scale of the problem anymore. How can it be right that even Cardinals are kept in the dark, because the one or other among them might “leak” if they don’t. How can it be expected the Cardinals are not given any information about who the black sheep and their protectors are, but are supposed to pick one able to get rid of them. It can only work by coincidence or heavenly help.

The culture of secrecy, and the vast incompetence at every level, is in turn encouraged by the culture of impunity. If no one ever gets really punished, the way will be open for every mistake, every conspiracy, every secret group, even a gay mafia.

The inability to think straight was ruthlessly exposed in the last weeks: the report will be given to the Cardinal, but actually no, it won’t. A Pope resigns and there’s no decision about his rank and official style, place of residence, stipend; decision which is not – absurdly – left to the next Pope, because it is then taken by the Pope himself.

With the Vatican today it is as if every little decision would cause pain, and every big one uncertainty: let the Cardinals have the report, oh well perhaps better not; let the SSPX agree to the Preambolo, oh well let us change the wording at the last second; let the former Pope be Bishop Emeritus Ratzinger, oh well let us have Pope Emeritus Benedict instead.

In the meantime, homosexuals make it to Cardinal.

How does the next Pope break this vicious circle of secrecy which encourages incompetence and fosters perversion? Inthe same way as this is done everywhere else: by punishing the culprits.

In every Board of Directors you lose your job and pay if you leak (there are ways to make this more difficult, like individually coded written texts allowing to know who has leaked). Let the first two or three leakers lose their red hat and bishopric, and see how fast the culture change.

The same applies to every other problem: if every one who is discovered to be homosexual is immediately defrocked, no one of them will ever aspire to a role within the Vatican; actually not even to a place in a seminary.

I could go on, but you get the gist.

I am not proposing anything outlandish, or being a hopeless dreamers. This is the way it works wherever things must be made to function properly. Truly, this is the most shocking aspect of the Vatican machinery nowadays: proper functioning simply seems not to interest anyone.

Last example? I read it this morning: the start of the conclave can only be officially fixed when all the Cardinals are there. “I have a speaking engagement”, says one. “Sorry, a lot to do at the moment”, says another. It will work in the end, but it would appear every Cardinal can cause a delay of a day or two if he thinks it serves his purposes. He’ll obviously visit jails and hospitals, so that no one can complain out loud.

Seriously?

Mundabor