Before Smoke Rises at Vatican, It’s Romans vs. the Reformers

New York Times ^ | March 10, 2013 | LAURIE GOODSTEIN and ELISABETTA POVOLEDO

[BlatherNaut]

VATICAN CITY — The cardinals who enter the papal conclave on Tuesday will walk into the Sistine Chapel in a single file, but beneath the orderly display, they are split into competing lineups and power blocs that will determine which man among them emerges as pope.

[BlatherNaut]

"The reformers, led by the Americans and some influential Europeans, are reportedly uniting around the Italian, Cardinal Angelo Scola, the archbishop of Milan, a popular pastor and an erudite moral theologian. As an Italian, he is familiar with the culture that dominates the Vatican bureaucracy, but he is not a part of it or beholden to it."

[Houghton M.]

This is embarrassing tripe. These MSM people, who don’t have a clue about the Church, have created this “Romans versus Reformers” nonsense out of thin air, in order to have something to write for the newspaper back home.

Clueless. Absolutely clueless.

[Da Coyote]

Anyone who believes a NYT article on the Vatican also believes Algore on climate change.

[BlatherNaut]

I was under the impression that Cardinal Scola was a curial insider.

[dfwgator]

What have the Romans ever done for us?

[Gay State Conservative]

Two NY Slimes atheists writing about the Catholic Church.What next from the Slimes? One of their reporters telling how wonderful things are in the Ukraine during a massive famine?

[rbmillerjr]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExWfh6sGyso

[Verginius Rufus]

You can learn as much about the conclave from reading Emmanuel LeRoy Ladurie's book, Carnival in Romans, than you can from reading The New York Times pontificating about "Romans."

The scandals are serious and need to be dealt with, but the church is not "paralyzed" by them.

[dangus]

Negative. The closest he’s come to the Vatican was being a professor at the Pontifical Lateran University.

[dangus]

The NYT are picking up on a meme I’ve seen among Catholic sources; the problem I have believing it, however, is that I can’t imagine Burke, Turkson and Bertone on the same team. If there’s any truth to it, it’s that there are house-cleaners vs. those who want to tread more carefully uprooting an institution, and that many house-cleaners include Curial officials, and the change-wear include many outsiders.

In any event, if it’s true that Scola’s stock is rising, that’s a good thing.

Other thoughts: Sec of State Bertone is out. Peter Turkson has nothing for him besides being from Africa, and being named Peter, both of which amount to zilch among the Cardinals.

[Salvation]

From the Slimes, no less.

[ArrogantBustard]

Clueless. Absolutely clueless.

Poor buggers have no idea what to do. It's not like US elections, where they can use push-polls, dishonest reporting, and yellow journalism to attempt to affect the vote.

OH, no. They're utterly powerless, and they can't stand it.

So they just sit there impotently spewing barnyard effluvia, and pretending to be important.