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