| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Meteorite Debris" |
| Date: |
31 Mar 2005 01:32:25 AM |
| Object: |
Gossip rules at the Vatican |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/43004
79.stm
http://tinyurl.com/45kdd
Gossip rules at the Vatican
By David Willey
BBC Rome correspondent
The Pope's latest spell in hospital and his deteriorating medical
condition have led to new speculation about his possible successor.
Yet inside the Vatican it is considered bad manners openly to discuss
the papal succession, let alone to campaign on behalf of any
particular cardinal while the reigning Pope is still alive.
A formal prohibition against discussing who is going to be the next
pope until the reigning pope is actually dead dates back a long way in
history - 15 centuries to be exact.
Pope Felix IV was a 6th Century pope who fell foul of the local clergy
and the Roman Senate by trying to nominate his own successor. The
Senate objected and passed an edict forbidding any discussion of his
successor during a pope's lifetime.
Walking through the splendidly frescoed corridors of power inside the
Vatican during these crisis days when the absent Pope lies stricken
and mute in hospital, at first sight everything seems terribly normal.
Cardinals wearing their distinctive red sashes, or more simply dressed
in simple clergymen's black suits, glide from office to office
clutching their black briefcases.
Nowadays they rarely wear the black cassocks with red piping which
used to enable you immediately to identify their lofty rank.
Little time to plot
Behind the scenes at the Vatican however, behind those thickly padded
doors which still protect the privacy of the top cardinals who run the
Church, the gossip level about who is going to succeed John Paul has
reached a new intensity.
One well-known cardinal was heard to declare that one of his fellow
Princes of the Church was an "idiot" for sounding off about the
subject.
There is only a small window of opportunity for the so-called
"papabili" - the shortlist of real candidates for the job - to meet
together and plot voting strategies at the Conclave, the electoral
body of cardinals summoned from around the world on the death of the
pontiff to elect his successor.
The Conclave takes place not less than 15 and not more than 20 days
after a pope's death.
After the funeral they have little more than a week for informal
secret discussions about the personality profile and job
qualifications they are going to demand for their new leader.
Even discussion about what would happen if the Pope were to go into a
coma, or become mentally impaired, with disastrous possible
consequences for the smooth functioning of the Vatican's well-oiled
bureaucratic machine, is officially frowned upon.
Eyebrows were therefore raised last month when the cardinal secretary
of state, technically the Pope's number two, speculated in public
about what would happen if the Pope felt he could no longer carry on
as leader of the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics.
Could he not resign, the cardinal was asked. That would be a matter
for the Pope's own conscience, the cardinal replied, implying that
resignation was still on the cards, despite the Pope's frequent
insistence that he intends to carry on "while there is breath in my
body".
Looming limbo
But no-one really seems to have budgeted for a prolonged absence of
the Pope in hospital.
The moment the Pope dies, every important official at the Vatican
immediately loses his job, until he is confirmed in office by the next
pontiff.
The headquarters of the Church goes into a sort of limbo, to use the
terminology the Church adopts to describe that halfway house between
heaven and hell for souls destined neither for eternal punishment nor
eternal bliss.
The technical name is a "Vacancy of the Holy See". This is important
because it highlights the absolute, monarchical power of the office of
pope in the organisational structure of the Catholic Church.
Once he is elected, every important appointment, every big policy
decision has to be personally taken by him.
Of course the Pope is assisted by his heads of department, and the
Vatican bureaucracy is so finely honed, that it chugs along very well
by itself, even if the Pope, like the current one, chooses not to
interfere too much in the ordinary day-to-day running of Church
administration.
But the man usually described as Pope's number two, Cardinal Angelo
Sodano, an Italian, can never pretend to exercise the same powers as
those enjoyed by the Pope himself.
So if John Paul were to lapse into a coma, or were to become impaired
to the extent that he is unable effectively to exercise his powers,
the implications for Church governance are grave.
Modern medical progress can create administrative, as well as ethical
problems.
--
epicurus1*at*optusnet*dot*com*dot*au
apatriot #1, atheist #1417,
Chief EAC prophet
Jason Gastrich is praying for me on 8 January 2009
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~pk1956/
Apatriotism Yahoo Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/apatriotism
Sunday: A day given over by Americans to wishing that they themselves
were dead and in Heaven, and that their neighbors were dead and in
Hell.
-Mencken
.
|
|
| User: "Les Hellawell" |
|
| Title: Re: Gossip rules at the Vatican |
31 Mar 2005 12:03:09 PM |
|
|
On Thu, 31 Mar 2005 11:02:25 +0930, Meteorite Debris
<abuse@optusnet,com.au> wrote:
Modern medical progress can create administrative, as well as ethical
problems.
It will be interesting to see how they deal with a Pope kept
perpetually alive but artificially on a ventilator fed through a
tube. How many years could the body continue to function
that way with the 'soul' already departed or the person who
used to inhabit the body clinically dead?
It might not happen with this Pope but sooner or later it is
bound to happen if they keep electing elderly men and do
not humanely retire them when they become too infirm.
--
Les Hellawell
greetings from
YORKSHIRE - The White Rose County
.
|
|
|
| User: "Mushinronsha" |
|
| Title: Re: Gossip rules at the Vatican |
01 Apr 2005 12:55:28 AM |
|
|
Les Hellawell wrote:
On Thu, 31 Mar 2005 11:02:25 +0930, Meteorite Debris
<abuse@optusnet,com.au> wrote:
Modern medical progress can create administrative, as well as ethical
problems.
It will be interesting to see how they deal with a Pope kept
perpetually alive but artificially on a ventilator fed through a
tube. How many years could the body continue to function
that way with the 'soul' already departed or the person who
used to inhabit the body clinically dead?
It might not happen with this Pope but sooner or later it is
bound to happen if they keep electing elderly men and do
not humanely retire them when they become too infirm.
--
Les Hellawell
greetings from
YORKSHIRE - The White Rose County
I've begun to wonder if these people will soon start objecting to removal of
cancerous tumors because that may be killing human life! Or, for that matter,
clipping their friggin fingernails! For cryin' out loud, when the brain no
longer functions, your life is OVER! Your "soul" died when the brain could no
longer function. (brain stem activity does not count as soul activity, even
though it may soon be legally sanctioned in JebBushLand)
Mushy
.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Related Articles |
|
|
