Reports that Pope is going to resign...

Tomk1

Benedict signed 'no-tweeting' order before stepping aside
http://www.breakingnews.ie/world/benedict-signed-no-tweeting-order-before-stepping-aside-586637.html

face automatic excommunication

Bet a few of them allmost died of shock, misreading as no "tween-ing" & automatic excommunication.
Priorities...Priorities.

robindch

A certain Msgr Charles Scicluna, reported to be the Vatican's "prosecutor" and their "anti-paedophilia official" between 1995 and 2012, says ok, Mahony might have made mistakes, but sure haven't we all, so look, let the man vote in the next conclave.

http://www.independent.com.mt/mobile/2013-02-21/news/cardinal-mahony-should-take-part-in-conclave-mgr-carmel-scicluna-930250754/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/vaticancityandholysee/9892254/Cardinals-who-hid-sex-abuse-have-right-to-vote-for-new-pope.html

Telegraph wrote:

Amid mounting criticism over the presence of such cardinals among the men who will choose a successor to Pope Benedict XVI, Monsignor Charles Scicluna said they had kept quiet "out of fear of scandal". Citing canon law, he said the cardinals "have the right and duty" to vote in the conclave.

"Wisdom is not (God)-given just to saints but also to sinners," said Scicluna, who was in charge of Vatican efforts to combat the scourge of predator priests before his promotion to auxiliary bishop of Malta in 2012. "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone," he told the Italian daily La Stampa in an interview published Monday. But he added: "The real scandal is not to have reported the abuses. Perceptions have changed. Silence has become scandal. And the credit goes to (the pope)."

Support groups for victims of paedophile priests in the United States, Belgium and Ireland say Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony as well as former Philadelphia Archbishop Justin Francis Rigali, Belgian Cardinal Godfried Danneels and Ireland's Sean Brady should be barred from voting because of their records in the scandals. A Vatican communications aide, Greg Burke, said in an interview published on Monday that the media "could try" to influence the conclave, adding that "some can be truly odious".

The Vatican's Secretariat of State – the government of the Catholic Church – took the unusual step on Saturday of issuing a statement condemning "completely false news stories" as an attempt to influence the secret conclave. "The negative effects of a work of imagination and approximation directly affect people's lives and reputations," Mr Burke told the Rome daily Il Messagero, adding: "People have suffered because of the documents stolen" in the so-called Vatileaks scandal.

"There are people who lost everything while some journalists profited immensely," he said. Benedict's butler Paolo Gabriele leaked secret papal memos to a journalist revealing a series of alleged fraud scandals in the Vatican and intrigues between rival groups of cardinals. The pope later pardoned Gabriele, who had been sentenced to 18 months in jail, but banished him from the Vatican.

The Black Oil

RTE's coverage seemed a bit excessive/deferential.

The Queen has a tummy bug, so that'll probably keep elements of the UK media occupied for a bit as the news cycle moves on.

Bannasidhe

The Black Oil wrote: »

RTE's coverage seemed a bit excessive/deferential.

The Queen has a tummy bug, so that'll probably keep elements of the UK media occupied for a bit as the news cycle moves on.

Well that explains a friend's FB status update - I thought vomiting 'Queenie' she was referring to was her cat and that she wasn't being terribly sympathetic to her poor pussy...

Hotblack Desiato

Monarchs don't vomit, one loses control of one's lunch.

Bannasidhe

VB turns his gaze on on the RCC's claims to be the church founded by Peter in his role as appointed successor to Jesus

There seemed to have been no appreciation on the part of Paul that Peter was head of the new church, certainly no deference. Indeed, it seems Peter himself had no appreciation of that either for, according to this account, he, Peter, deferred to instructions from another apostle, James, the brother of Jesus, who was regarded in Jerusalem as head of the new religion.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2013/0306/1224330829662.html

PopePalpatine

I always read his IT articles in his voice. :pac:

robindch

The gerontocracy has decided to install their new guy in time for the Irish rugby international in Rome next weekend.

Your correspondent will be there

http://www.thejournal.ie/conclave-to-begin-march-12-824253-Mar2013/

The Journal wrote:

CATHOLIC CARDINALS will begin their conclave to decide the next pope of the Roman Catholic Church next Tuesday, March 12.
The decision to begin the conclave on Tuesday was made at a meeting of the 115 voting-age Cardinals this afternoon.

The decision affirms the cardinals’ wishes to hold the conclave earlier than usual, in accordance in with one of the final acts of the previous pontiff.
Church law previously dictated that the conclave had to begin 15 days after the papacy became vacant, but one of Benedict XVI’s last acts in office was to change this so that the conclave could be held earlier if all of the voting cardinals were already in Rome.

Today’s vote follows days of meetings between cardinals which have actually doubled as informal pre-conclave talks on the problems of the church, and who might best address those problems if appointed to the papacy.

Bannasidhe

robindch wrote: »

The gerontocracy has decided to install their new guy in time for the Irish rugby international in Rome next weekend.

Your correspondent will be there

http://www.thejournal.ie/conclave-to-begin-march-12-824253-Mar2013/

gerontocracy - favourite new word!

Will the new guy be any good at place kicking?

Sarky

I recently signed up for an "adopt a cardinal" website, but found out later that they were actually deadly serious

Bannasidhe

Sarky wrote: »

I recently signed up for an "adopt a cardinal" website, but found out later that they were actually deadly serious

Christ!


:pac:

robindch

Bannasidhe wrote: »

Will the new guy be any good at place kicking?

Well, no matter how bad he is, he couldn't kick any worse than O'Gara's hoofing in the Scotland match.

Hotblack Desiato

robindch wrote: »

The gerontocracy has decided to install their new guy in time for the Irish rugby international in Rome next weekend.

# Drop-kick me Jeezus through the goalposts of life #

recedite

Technology behind the Magic trick of the white smoke revealed;

Two stoves were installed and attached to a single flue leading up to the roof. One, made of cast iron and used in every conclave since 1939, will be used to burn ballots.
The second stove is an electronic one with a key, a red start button and seven tiny temperature indicator lights. Flares will be electronically ignited inside it to send out either white or black smoke.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/chimney-raised-on-sistine-chapel-as-conclave-nears-1.1320756

The traditional superstition is that the used ballots are burned during the voting, and the ink on them causes the smoke to be black. Then when a winner emerges, the leftover (unused) ballot papers are burned, creating the ecstasy-inducing white smoke.
Common sense however, would indicate that the difference in smoke colour caused by the ink would be imperceptible to the human eye.
But the Vatican would never let common sense get in the way of a superstition that draws the frenzied masses of the ignorant, hence the importance of these smoke bombs connected into the same flue pipe as the vintage magic stove.

robindch

Letter in today's IT:

http://www.irishtimes.com/debate/letters/gilmore-avoids-men-only-dinner-1.1331393

Patrick O'Byrne wrote:

Sir, – I’m confused. Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore refuses to attend the anniversary dinner of the all-male Hibernian Society of Savannah (Home News, March 16th) and is commended (Mary Maher, March 19th).

President Michael D Higgins and Minister for Finance Michael Noonan attend the inauguration Mass in St Peter’s Square concelebrated by Pope Francis and 180 senior all-male clergy and nobody objects.

Is it a male thing? – Yours, etc,

PATRICK O’BYRNE,
Shandon Crescent,
Phibsborough,
Dublin 7.

recedite

Ah, well the difference is that we, the Irish, own Paddy's Day. When our representatives go to the USA they can strut around, tut-tutting at the yanks for doing it wrong.
But when in Rome......they must bow their heads in subservience to the Romans.

robindch

I'm sure he facepalmed when the news came out last month, but hey-ho, anybody for Eggs Benedict?

http://nikileejohnson.wordpress.com/

Dades

Great work... except for Benny's tiny T-Rex arms. :pac:

Hotblack Desiato

He's making the face my toddler makes when he's squeezing out one.

Bannasidhe

ninja900 wrote: »

He's making the face my toddler makes when he's squeezing out one.

I knew I'd seen that expression before - it's toddler having a poo!

Obliq

Brilliant! I love the idea of it....the back of the piece makes him look more diabolical too. Nice one - going to steal that link for elsewhere, ta Robin

robindch

Can't remember if this link appeared before. Anyhow, here's Bruce Schneier on hacking the papal election:

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/02/20/opinion/schneier-papal-election-secure

Summary: it's hard.

PopePalpatine

Well there go my dreams of rigging the conclave so Dawkins could win. :pac:

Sarky

Jaysus, with all those precautions it's like the Holy Spirit isn't inspiring anyone over there.

Kinski

PopePalpatine wrote: »

Well there go my dreams of rigging the conclave so Dawkins could win. :pac:

Nuts to that, I do like in the Chris Morris sketch about teenagers hacking the Vatican and canonising Lou Reed. I'd make David Bowie pope while I was at it.

Sarky

Bowie would never dress down like that.

robindch

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

# Drop-kick me Jeezus through the goalposts of life #

As of last Monday, Jesus seems to have done just that.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-43455753

Catherine Deveney, the Observer journalist who first broke the story of O'Brien's failings wrote a careful, but elegantly-worded, codicil to his life:

Catherine Deveney wrote:

He was a symptom of an organisation that had lost its way. Keith O'Brien was not a monster, he wasn't an ogre - he was just a weak man. And I hope in the last years of his life when he took off the mitre, took off the cardinal's robes, he found something more real. I hope he found peace at the end of his life and I think his victims would wish that for him too.