Word: sodano
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Instead, there is at least one other top Cardinal who has the Holy Father's ear. His name is Angelo Sodano, and he is Bertone's predecessor as Secretary of State. Working mostly behind the scenes as the influential dean of the College of Cardinals, the 82-year-old Sodano made a public appearance on Easter in St. Peter's Square to speak out explicitly about Benedict's difficulties: "Holy Father, on your side are the people of God, who do not let themselves be influenced by the petty gossip of the moment." Maybe he should have kept quiet...
...CORRECTION: Though it wasn't clear if the phrase from the draft speech was actually the Pope's or that of then Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano, it was excised from the official version released by the Vatican. It was an early sign that there might be problems in the way the new pontiff and his aides respond to diplomatic crises...
...papal discourses would wind their way through several layers of checks and input from various offices in the Roman Curia - and particularly in the latter years of the previous papacy, bureaucrats actually wrote the speeches themselves. But the effective No. 2 man in the Curia bureaucracy, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, had been a lame duck over the last two months after Benedict announced his replacement as Secretary of State would begin this fall (Sep. 15, in fact, the day after the Pope's return from Germany). Insiders say the 78-year-old Italian hadn't had an effective working relationship with...
...Whether or not Benedict has learned his communication lesson, at least now he has in place several key advisors who can improve his approach on the world stage. Sodano's replacement, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, was Ratzinger's top deputy in his former job as the head of the Vatican's doctrinal office. From his first day on the new job last Friday, Bertone has led what for the Vatican has been a rather rapid response to the precipitous fallout from the Pope's speech. Benedict's public declaration Sunday of his regret, and his clarification of his remarks...
...Timed together with Sodano's retirement comes the end of the Curia career for the governor of Vatican City, U.S. Cardinal Edmund Szoka, who will be replaced on Friday by Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, currently the Holy See foreign minister. This will leave the job of top foreign affairs official vacant. Among the names circulating are two linked to France: Italian-born Archbishop Fortunato Baldelli, who is currently nuncio (ambassador) in France, and Archbishop Christophe Pierre, 60, currently the nuncio in Uganda. Some observers say that Benedict still needs to find his voice on world affairs, and a forceful player...