French press slams Vatican spin on pope's illness

[emad]

PARIS, Feb 8 (AFP) - The French Roman Catholic daily La Croix Tuesday cricitised "half-truths" contained in Vatican pronouncements on Pope John Paul II's illness since he was taken to hospital with breathing difficulty.

Meanwhile a leading French newspaper, Le Monde, also weighed in against the "sin of idolatry" surrounding the 84-year-old pope, saying it believed he was now incapable of leading the Catholic Church.

The two papers said the pope's appearance Sunday at the window of Rome's Gemelli hospital for the traditional Sunday Angelus blessing had raised fresh worries.

"Between transparency and opacity, it seems that the most disturbing choice has been made - that of half-truths," said
http://www.expatica.com/source/site_article.asp?subchannel_id=58&story_id=16719&name=French+press+slams+Vatican+spin+on+pope's+illness

[babylonsister]

1. I heard a priest on the tube this a.m.

He was not very optimistic about the pope. Last legs, etc.

[jmcgowanjm]

2. Whistling past the graveyard, triage, lifesupport, jockeyforpower

All this and more, but they have time to make
annulment harder( see post in LBN)?

Clueless.

And before someone decides to
"counsel" me, think of the pope's 26 years of
battle v a woman's right to choose and all the
mental, physical damage that he's done in
securing his dogma.

[emad]

3. Pope health poses Vatican dilemma

By Peter Gould
Religious affairs analyst, BBC News


The latest health scare for John Paul II may be a sign that his illness has entered a new phase.

The Pope's illness poses a real challenge to ancient Vatican law

The present crisis was triggered by flu, with Vatican aides becoming alarmed when the Pope began to have difficulty breathing.

But the underlying problem is the progressive debility brought on by Parkinson's disease, an illness he has endured for more than 10 years.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4250543.stm

[jody]

4. There is no dilemma, it's just reporters trying to make news. n/t

[emad]

5. Like Arafat before him...who suddenly popped his clogs....

or maybe like Pinochet about to?

[arwalden]

21. "Nothing To See Here... Move Along Folks... It's All Under Control."

[Wat_Tyler]

22. How the hell do you know?

[davidinalameda]

6. I don't see the problem either

I'm sure that the Vatican is being run by bureacrats--like any good organization--and when he dies, he dies

[Canuckistanian]

7. An elderly, sick pope - the Church has never seen THAT before?

This is SOP for the Papacy - maybe they have to wait a few more months, not really a crisis.

[True_Blue]

14. He missed Ash Wednesday service for the first time in 26 years.

'Frail Pope misses Ash Wednesday service'

Pope John Paul, starting his second week in hospital after flu and breathing difficulties, has failed for the first time in 26 years to preside at the Ash Wednesday services starting the run-up to Easter.
The Pope, 84, would have been even more vividly reminded of his own mortality than many of the other Roman Catholics around the world who went to church to have dust or ash rubbed on their foreheads in a mark of penitence and humility.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=337222&in_page_id=1811&ct=5

[Vidar]

8. An aging hero who has outlived his capabilities. I salute him, but...

[Shakespeare]

9. a HERO?

Hardly.

[youngred]

10. sure he is

He has done a lot of good (as well as some bad) in his stint as Pope. He did more than Ronnie Ray-Gun ever did to help free Poland

[Shakespeare]

11. Sorry, but...

Anybody who has spent his entire life encouraging the subjugation of women and the discrimination against gays and lesbians--and who continues doing so, probably to his dying breath--is not a hero.

You do not get to call yourself a hero if you have furthered the persecution of ANY group. Good for him that he did some good things, but that doesn't excuse the power he's wielded to harm so many people.

No, not a hero.

[jody]

12. We all have opinions but mine is that the Pope is a hero. n/t

[Vidar]

13. You're right but he also spoke out successfully vs the evils of both

communism & capitalism--a more noteworthy accomplishment than his admittedly Neanderthal stance on gays, contraception and priestly celibacy. Tragic here, I'll buy, as he is definitely flawed, but heroic nonetheless.

[emad]

20. His seminal role in the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano which went

down the pan owing $400million+ and which resulted in the murder of "God's Banker" Roberto Calvi are surely matters for discussion with St Peter when he reaches those pearly gates.....if not before.

The Rome murder trial of Calvi was suspended last April after City of London Police submitted an astonishing 70 crates of "previously unavailable" evidence about the P2 Lodge, Vatican investments, cold war corruption in the Vatican's Institute of Religious Works (ie their slush fund), the funding of World War II war criminals hiding in Latin America and JP2's personal involvement in one of the most corrupt Polish clerical orders, the Henley-on-Thames based Marian Fathers.

Hero? Only to the family of Licio Gelli, and maybe Flavio Carbone, two mafia stooges currently in the Rome slammer awaiting resumption of the Calvi murder trial.

[LiberteToujours]

15. I've been hearing a lot of "slamming" lately

The press needs to come up with a new descriptive verb, that one is getting really tiresome.

[emad]

16. Cardinals break taboo to talk of Pope's resignation

Times
From Richard Owen in Rome



A VATICAN debate over whether the Pope should resign erupted into the public domain yesterday.

As the 84-year-old pontiff failed to preside at Ash Wednesday prayers for the first time since taking office in 1978, top cardinals voiced conflicting views on whether he should become the first Pope since the 13th century to step down.

Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, the Archbishop of Paris, backed Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican’s Secretary of State (Prime Minister), who caused astonishment on Monday by declaring that resignation was “a matter for the Pope’s conscience”. Previously the Vatican had dismissed any idea of the Pope resigning.

Cardinal Lustiger said: “The Pope is capable of taking a decision in accordance with the will of God to complete his mission.” He told French Radio that the Church was not governed by a “superman” like Arnold Schwarzenegger: “The Pope is a suffering man.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,173-1477582,00.html

LUSTIGER must be heading for the funny farm....or has Arnie ever played Superman????

[emad]

17. JP2's resingation letter lodged with officials?

Earlier Cardinal Jorge María Mejía of Argentina, a close friend of the pontiff, said: “If the Pope cannot communicate in words, this poses a serious problem. The celebration of the sacraments presupposes that he can speak.” Cardinal Mejía added that he believed that the Pope had lodged a resignation letter with Vatican officials in case he became incapacitated.

But Cardinal Mario Francesco Pompedda, head of the Vatican court system, insisted that the Pope could run the Church even if he could not speak. “It is sufficient that his will be expressed, and be expressed in a clear way, either through writing or clear and significant gestures.”

Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the head of the Congregation for Bishops who is seen as a potential pope himself, protested that any discussion of resignation was “in bad taste”. Cardinal Dario Castrillo Hoyos, head of the Congregation for the Clergy, agreed, saying: “The Pope has the helm of the Church firmly in his hands.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,173-1477582,00.html

[emad]

24. & here's another one that should be booted out:

Vatican Raises Polish Cardinal's Age

By Associated Press

February 9, 2005, 2:10 PM EST

VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican has raised the age of a Polish cardinal to 81 -- making him ineligible to vote in a conclave for a pope -- after he acknowledged lying about his age during World War II to escape being sent to a German labor camp.

The newly published Vatican yearbook lists the birth date of Cardinal Henryk Gulbinowicz as Oct. 17, 1923, which is five years older than his listing in previous years.

Cardinals older than 80 are ineligible to vote for a new pope, and the change reduces the number of cardinal-electors to 119.

Gulbinowicz spoke of the age change Sunday in an interview with Poland's Catholic news agency KAI.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-...
EDIT: See:http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3084701

[whistle]

18. Is there no Vice Pope?

[emad]

19. This is the THIRD secret of Fatima! A vice pope exists and draws

a $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ salary:

[whistle]

23. That's what I thought and Condi is Bernadette