State Dept.: If Request Were Made for International Monitoring of Papal Election....

Cybercast News Service ^ | 3/17/2013 | Terence P. Jeffrey

[markomalley]

Full title: State Dept.: If Request Were Made for International Monitoring of Papal Election ‘We Would Take It Very Seriously’

[ClearCase_guy]

These satire articles are only funny if they are believable.

[markomalley]

From the State Department transcript:

MS. NULAND: Oh, here we go. Here we go. Matt’s got one.

QUESTION: Yeah, I’ve got my Vatican question.

MS. NULAND: All right.

QUESTION: But also there was a question asked yesterday --

MS. NULAND: I thought I was going to get away.

QUESTION: -- that was kind of intriguing about comments made by the Japanese Prime Minister, or former Japanese Prime Minister about the trials after the Second World War. Did you get an answer to that question?

MS. NULAND: I don’t have any comment on that at all.

QUESTION: Okay.

MS. NULAND: All right?

QUESTION: No.

MS. NULAND: Okay?

QUESTION: Vatican.

MS. NULAND: What about the Vatican?

QUESTION: Well, do you regard it as a free and fair exercise in electing a leader of a country?

MS. NULAND: We did a little bit more digging on this. We consider Vatican City a sovereign juridical state. As some of you know – I think Matt knows – that sovereign juridical state has about 600 resident citizens. I would simply note that in the context of the election for the Pope, they were electing the head of a religion. He’s also the head of this sovereign juridical state.

It’s interesting to us that since this is a European state, we have never had a request for ODIHR monitoring of the election, ODIHR being the election-monitoring entity in the European space. So, obviously, were that to come forward, we would take it very seriously.

QUESTION: So, wait, who requests that?

MS. NULAND: The – it can be requested by citizens. It can be requested by parliament. It can be requested by the opposition, as it was in the case of Belarus.

QUESTION: So if – (laughter) – such a request was made, would – the Vatican would have to open up its voting process for that kind of state?

MS. NULAND: If such a request were made for ODIHR monitoring of the voting, then the Vatican would have to consider whether it would open itself to ODIHR monitors.

QUESTION: Okay. But – all right. That’s very interesting. Now --

MS. NULAND: And as I said yesterday --

QUESTION: Yes.

MS. NULAND: -- we would – if you wanted to be a monitor, we could see if we could arrange it, Matt. (Laughter.)

QUESTION: That would be great. I would love to spend a week or two in Rome.

MS. NULAND: Exactly.

QUESTION: But – what – now – but that --

QUESTION: Can women be monitors?

MS. NULAND: Say again?

QUESTION: Can women be monitors?

MS. NULAND: In the Vatican City context, I don’t know. We’d have to work on that. Jill, do you want to monitor?

QUESTION: So this just brings me --

MS. NULAND: Jill’s volunteering, too. We could have a whole roomful of monitors.

QUESTION: Yes.

QUESTION: Is it then correct that the U.S. does not take a position on whether the election of the Pope was free and fair and transparent?

MS. NULAND: As I said yesterday --

QUESTION: Without universal suffrage, without --

MS. NULAND: As I said yesterday, we don’t have any reason to question the process.

Thank you very much.

QUESTION: Thank you.

(The briefing was concluded at 1:41 p.m.) 

# # #

[ClearCase_guy]

I know it’s not satire. I left my irony on – can you smell it burning?

[cripplecreek]

They can take it seriously all they want. They have zero authority to do so.

[metesky]

Their arrogant insanity knows no bounds.

[BipolarBob]

Is this a real article? Not some satire joke thing.

[Steve0113]

I found it completely believable that an AP reporter would pull crap like that.

[markomalley]

I was going to post the transcript earlier...

[cripplecreek]

The state department probably fed the question to the reporter as a means of putting it out there in hopes that a movement will grow around it.

[Truth29]

I guess it is time to dig into the background of Matthew Lee and see what what agenda might be there. Here is a start:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Lee

[mgist]

This is not the Republic for which it stands anymore! May God help us. The Pope and Catholics are a huge threat to Marxism. The record hundreds of thousands of young people at the National Right to Life was ignored by the media, but regardless shows the youth are more faithful than ever. One in every four Americans are Catholic, John Paul II was as influential internationally as Reagan was in the US, they pushed back the disease significantly. God has sent us strong leaders again. The devil is mot pleased.

[mlizzy]

Ha! They’re too late; we just elected our last pope! :)

[EBH]

If you believe that we just elected the last Pope, then according to the prophecy there should arise out of the tribe of Dan opposition to this Pope. And it will split the Church...

So, following this “article” one might be led to believe there is such a movement afoot to split the progressive Catholic from the Doctrinal Catholic.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

"Separation of Church and state" is a one-way street, don't you know?

[righttackle44]

I wonder if the Vatican and the Catholic church have reason to believe that the last U.S. Presidential elections met any standards of fair and just at all.

[Carry_Okie]

The agenda is getting the Vatican to submit the selection of the pope to the UN.

[mlizzy]

If you believe that we just elected the last Pope, then according to the prophecy there should arise out of the tribe of Dan opposition to this Pope. And it will split the Church... So, following this “article” one might be led to believe there is such a movement afoot to split the progressive Catholic from the Doctrinal Catholic.

I was being facetious (I think:)), but I "do" notice (maybe it's because I'm online more than when BXVI was elected) that there IS a hostility toward Pope Francis (by a few Catholics!!) that I wasn't aware of for Benedict. They are different popes in some ways, of course. As our priest said today in his homily, "we've gone from Prada to Payless." So this "article" could be just that, as you suggest; a tool to further separate.

[EBH]

I sort of thought you were being facetious, but sometimes things can hit too close to reality it seems. Plus according to “the prophecy” this Pope should being killed before his inaugaral.

[phormer phrog phlyer]

The church has only been doing it this way for nearly 2000 years, this is like the gun grabbers working on ways to take away guns, that have been in families for generations. These people are amazing.