Filum Romanum - A Thread for the Catholic Church

This is largely the same college of cardinals that elected Benedict. With variance like that, you can colloquially call it a crapshoot.

Benedict was the safe choice back then.

The front runners in the most recent election were an African, an Asian, and a South American (who won). The Europeans were considered "darkhorses" for the first time in centuries.

Bout time.

Germany seizes cocaine-filled condoms sent to the Vatican.

The thing is, it's impossible to know for certain what the new Pope will be like until he puts on that hat.

I don't think anyone expected Jorge Bergoglio to be half the Pope that he's been. Granted, he wasn't as well-known as Joseph Ratzinger when he got the job, but even so.

Nice Hat, too.

Additionally, there's not that much daylight between Ratzinger and Bergoglio. The press made the former look a lot less thoughtful, pleasant, and irenic than he actually was, and is making the latter look a lot less orthodox and willing to draw lines than he actually is. So the College has been more consistent in its choices than popular caricatures are making it look.

(The whole thing reminds me of Chesterton's famous puzzlement at the popular contrast drawn between Sts. Dominic and Francis, who were virtually spiritual twins ... but whom popular history has since cast as cartoon figures of mediaeval Christendom at its worst and best, respectively.)

Yep. It's more of a narrative in Protestant countries.

edited 24th Mar '14 8:23:16 AM by Jhimmibhob

Nuance complicates the narrative, and the press won't let the truth get in the way of a good story.

Sts. Dominic and Francis are practically the same over here. Although it has more to do with their "representatives" (the Dominicans and the Franciscans)...

There might not be much difference ideologically but there sure seems to be a difference in priorities. Benedict might share Francis's beliefs on corruption and the plight of the poor, but he sure seemed to put a lower priority on them.

Nobody at that level of the church is going to be *that* distinct in terms of Orthodoxy. It's like saying that Lenin and Stalin were no different, for while it is true that the two were much more similar in belief than many like to paint them, there are still key differences that also can't be overlooked.

I'm sure Benedict would've ticked most of the same boxes on the Catholic Comprehension List, but he spent most of his actual term not substantively doing much useful and in many ways setting us backward — not even counting his direct involvement in covering up the sex abuse cases before his term. Even if he had the press on his side, there was only so much to hail him for.

Francis is actually getting off his arse and being Jesus to people. Which is, y'know, what we're all supposed to be doing.

edited 24th Mar '14 10:20:25 AM by Pykrete

Snark and barbs and everything. He's almost literally flaying the moneylenders out of the temple.

edited 24th Mar '14 5:00:25 PM by TheHandle

Press spin aside, there's no reason to say that any of that's something Benedict wasn't doing. (And his so-called "direct involvement in covering up the sex abuse cases before his term" holds less and less water the closer you look at it, from merely sievelike to nonexistent.)

And I'll be thrilled if Francis backs up his welcome words about the Vatican bureaucracy with some actual structural changes, but it's too early yet to credit him with achieving any of them.

He's been sacking dudes over it. He's sacked cardinals over it.

He outright replaced over half of one of the most notorious oversight bodies.

edited 25th Mar '14 2:12:01 PM by Pykrete

Who, Benny?

I think he's talking about Francis' reforms.

Pope Francis is a turnaround CEO for the Church

Trust Forbes to come up with a clever businessy metaphor.

Pope Francis on Wednesday accepted the resignation of Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, the bishop of Limburg, whose extravagant spending on renovations for his personal residence angered his congregation and ran afoul of the pontiff’s message of humility and modesty for the Roman Catholic Church..

edited 29th Mar '14 3:01:59 AM by TheHandle

No speako castellano

This is from a mid-XIX th century novel about a very depressing old town, and how they go about corrupting an innocent woman because she shows them up just by existing. By pure chance, the latest bishop was chosen a saintly old man who doesn't have any interest in dressing all smart and sharp, and who addresses the mass with a spiritual passion that at first made them curious, then enthusiastic... then bored again.

edited 29th Mar '14 3:45:23 AM by TheHandle

The Vatican has launched an investigation into the "sexual misconduct which led to the resignation of Cardinal Keith O'Brien", the investigation is being lead by a Maltese bishop by the name of Charles Scicluna. According to the BBC "it [is] very rare for the Pope to actively and publicly investigate a cardinal in this way".

Well this is certainly an interesting one, it comes down to if the investigation is a real investigation or an attempt to get nasty evidence out of the way, we'll probably have to wait for the results before we can make educated guesses either way. [1]

I suspect it's to find more. Paedophiles and other sexual predators do tend to have networks... and, where you net one, you'll find others.

A close investigation is going to worry quite a few who have made it under the radar. Until now.

edited 4th Apr '14 7:44:33 AM by Euodiachloris

Given its Pope Francis, I think he's trying to clear house.