Word: rome
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Vatican insiders say the brushup is the latest sign that the troubles in Rome run deeper than just the Pope's apparent difficulty in facing accusations about his role in the church's dark past on this issue. Blame often falls first on Bertone, whom Benedict plucked for the prime job in 2006, after the two had worked closely for many years in the Vatican doctrinal office. The Secretary of State job has enormous responsibility, essentially serving as Vatican Prime Minister, charged with making the wheels of the billion-strong church turn smoothly, while the Pope focuses on being shepherd...
...Catholic priests are abusing children, it is Rome, not Dublin, that must answer for it with a full confession and in a criminal investigation. Until it does, all good Catholics--even little old ladies who go to church every Sunday, not just protest singers like me whom the Vatican can easily ignore--should avoid Mass. In Ireland, it is time we separated ... our faith from its alleged leaders...
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's center-right coalition made unforeseen gains in the March 28 regional elections, taking four districts from the opposition--including Lazio, which contains Rome--for a total of six of the 13 contested regions. Berlusconi viewed the results of the election, which was considered a test of his popularity, as a mandate to move ahead with several controversial reforms, including an overhaul of the country's justice system and a constitutional change that would allow for direct election of the President, a position separate from that of the Prime Minister...
...Libyans from entering its country. In January, Libya blocked access to YouTube and several websites run by Libyan exiles, and in February it stopped handing out visas to most European citizens. When I visited Libya's biggest gas-export facility in February, the Italian manager was stuck in Rome, with no visa to return to work. To all this, Saif sighs, clearly exasperated. "There is a big gap between ... our mentality and the Western mentality," he says. "I think we are not ready to deal in the right way with the Western world...
This is the season when we are reminded that you can safely and reliably count just about anything other than people. Census comes from the Latin censere, which, tellingly, does not mean count so much as estimate, and 2,500 years ago in Rome, people were already squirrelly about being estimated. The penalty for refusing to reveal how many people were in your household, how many slaves, how much livestock, was forfeiting it all and becoming a slave yourself. The Bible tells the story of God getting so mad at King David for ordering a census (granted, it was because...