Management shakeup coming at the Vatican?

On Wednesday Walt wondered "What has Cardinal Bertone got on Benedict XVI?". I was trying to decode the pope's public letter of support for his Secretary of State, Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone. Perhaps, I thought, Bertone has something -- documents or worse -- which he's holding over the pontiff's head, to keep his (Bertone's) job and maintain himself as the eminence grise, the power behind the Throne of Peter.

The only thing wrong with that notion is that Bertone does not appear to have much control ovr the Roman curia, although he may like to think he does. The proof is that other powerful cardinals are now seen as conspirators against the prelate -- the mutineers on the barque of Peter, as Sandro Magister puts it in Chiesa today.

As for Benedict's letter, if I were an Italian, and the head of my family publicly thanked me for my loyal support and expressed his confidence in me, I would keep my eyes fully open so as not to step in any buckets of wet cement. Of course the pope is not Italian. Well, not fully Italian...

Sr Magister seems to think the concrete -- the whole nine yards of it -- is being mixed at Castel Gandolfo (the pope's summer residence) as we speak. In today's article he writes of "an absence of management, which has allowed the growth within the Roman curia of the hidden rebellion of some of its civil servants....The Vatican Secretariat of State [Cardinal Bertone, officer "in charge". Walt] which from the time of Paul VI forward has also been the main engine of the central government of the Church, is inevitably also the main culprit of this disorientation."

"Benedict XVI is so aware of this", the noted Vaticanista continues, "that, in order to bring order back to the Sacred Palaces, he has not called upon his prime minister, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, but for the consultation of a college of adepts among those farthest from him: to begin with, cardinals Ruini, Ouellet, Tomko, Pell, Tauran."

Sr Magister's conclusion? "For a change of management in the Vatican curia, the moves are already underway." Stay tuned.

Note from Ed.: Walt and I are aware that we have many non-Catholic readers who couldn't care less what goes on in the Vatican. And some Catholics who should care, don't. Allow us to comment on this subject occasionally for Father Bill and those who do care, and we'll devote equal or more space and outrage to secular issues.

Cardinal says Communion in the hand is "sacrilegious and scandalous"

Here's a follow-up to the story of Steve's sacrilege. A reader passes on news that last April 27th, Cardinal Carlo Caffarra, of Bologna, Italy, forbade the practice of receiving Communion in the hand at three of the 400-plus churches in his archdiocese.

The prelate called the practice, instituted in the aftermath of Vatican II, "sacrilegious and scandalous". However, he did not explain why or how it could be "sacrilegious and scandalous" in three churches but not in the other 400. Walt's guess: it's a mystery!