But because I took a big interest in the "Kim Davis Affair", I was kinda watching what would happen to Cdl. Carlo Vigano, the guy who set up Pope Francis' meeting with both the Little Sisters of the poor (major opponents of the Obamacare/HHS mandates) and with Kim Davis.
The gays and liberals (like Fr.Thomas Rosica, the pro-gay sweetheart in the Vatican Press Office) were all saying that Vigano would get the boot because he was actively organizing events to highlight Pope Francis' commitment to uphold religious liberty and oppose gay marriage.
Now it turns out that Fr. Rosica has apparently been sidelined, former FoxNews guy and Opie Greg Burke is effectively replacing him in the Press Office (LINK), and Vigano has been made Top Dog in the Communications Dept, in charge not just of structure but of content.
That's Kim Davis' friend. Carlo Vigano.
It's an interesting development.
Of possible interest.
The bigger challenge remains...treating the other half of humans as equals mentally, rather than by Firefighter standards.
Until then, the song remains the same.
Very interesting indeed. My personal feeling is that the pope is basically a leftist at heart and not fundamentally anti-Christian, just concerned with maintaining his leftist image. However, I don’t think he’s mentally in very good shape now - possible dementia - and a lot of his wackier statements really come from the fact that he has no idea what he’s saying.
The nasty German cadre that got Benedict out and got Bergoglio elected (let’s say, “elected,” since there was much that was murky) has been controlling him, but I suspect that there has been a pro-orthodox rebellion going on. Powerful people, even some who had been removed or demoted, such as Burke, may be fighting for orthodoxy.
But there’s another scenario. Vigano was very good as nuncio and the bad appointments, such as Cupich, were made directly by the Pope (or his US representative, Wuerl) , overriding both the USCCB and Vigano.
The Wuerl wing wanted Vigano removed after the Kim Davis meeting. The NCR had their devotees petitioning Rome to remove Vigano. So perhaps he is being removed to gratify them. But on the other hand, this position sounds important. So we shall see.
And who will we get as nuncio?
Hallelujah!
As Pope Francis does not speak English, Greg Burke being named to a top Communications position is certainly good news.
Mrs. Don-o, psy ops (that is, manipulation of the public) are getting more advanced all the time. They really go back all the way in human history, but modern science and ruthlessness have made them a discipline. Government, politics and business are advancing their methods all the time. The Vatican too demonstrates an advanced ability in this as well.
So given the actual outcome of the “Kim Davis affair,” it’s hard to conclude that it was as it might seem at face value. It could have been as orchestrated as bringing the little illegal immigrant girl to meet the Pope.
Given all this pope has done, it was a curious thing to begin with that he would go so far as to meet with Davis, even considering the possibility that his underlings set the meeting up. Giving his penchant for talking out of both sides of his mouth so people of different beliefs can latch onto what they want to hear, it wouldn’t have been surprising for him to issue some vague ambiguous statement offering some support to Davis. But to go out of his way to initiate a meeting with her, or even for his underlings to do so? That was uncharacteristic right there.
What it really seemed like, initially, was that Kim Davis was being used and manipulated for some reason, but it wasn’t quite clear how.
As the situation turned out, it seemed like a way for the Vatican to publicly repudiate Kim Davis without seeming to go on the offensive to do so. The Vatican, after all, really couldn’t release a statement attacking her. That would be too unambiguous. But by initiating a meeting with her, but then saying that didn’t mean it was an endorsement of her actions (untrue right there since that is logically how it should be taken), and overall allowing her to be accused of lying about the circumstances of their meeting by the left, just served the purposes of “gay marriage” advocates. The Vatican could seem to need to “correct the record” on not supporting Davis, rather than having to come out and, unbidden, make a statement against her that would make the Pope’s position all-too-clear. This way they maintained their cover of ambiguity.
And Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Davis_(county_clerk)#Meeting_with_Pope_Francis
The Vatican and the Pope aren’t naive. They came right out with the statement disavowing support for Davis when they wanted to, and it was worldwide news. They knew what they were doing, and how the “spin” on things matters. They’ve made a statement by their clarification, and by allowing the situation to rest with the false allegations against her that she made up what happened. Keep in mind, too, that during the same visit, the Pope met openly with his former student and the student’s husband (with the Vatican saying this was the only real audience), accompanied by pictures:
http://abc7ny.com/religion/vatican-pope-met-with-gay-student-partner-in-kim-davis-twist/1013714/
Frankly, one can live a very full Catholic life while refusing to get all knotted up about the Curial sausage-making.
Considering all the vigorous ‘sausage’ manufacture ocurring in the 1960’s, leaving us with the sacrality starved, textually impoverished Pauline Mass, such a statement should be taken with as many grains of salt as might be needed to render flavor to the inedible mess...
this is a minor concession to traditionalists. michael sean winters writes that pope francis could put cardinal wuerl and archbishop cupich in charge of bishop appointments.