Word: vatican
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...think the Vatican--they've got more to talk about than the Beatles...
Right now, one can imagine, everyone at the Vatican would like most of all to find a way to quiet the global uproar over the church's handling of clergy sex abuse. In the past week alone, besides the criticism over Bertone's comments, a priest in Massachusetts has suggested the Pope should resign, while two of the Vatican's harshest critics, anti-religious writers Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins, have called for Benedict's arrest when he arrives in Britain in September for a visit...
...suffered from a leader largely uninterested in administrative affairs and often away from headquarters, trotting the globe. That left Rome to the 20 or so Cardinals to vie for influence. The hope was that Benedict, who as Joseph Ratzinger was one of the most influential of the cadre of Vatican Cardinals, would whip the Roman Curia into shape. Instead, starting with Bertone, he chose to play defense. Says a longtime Vatican observer: "He knew the place well and saw a lot of long knives. He wanted loyalty above all else and chose people whom he could trust blindly, and hoped...
Bertone has tried to exert his influence over the unwieldy Vatican bureaucracy by placing his trusted Italians in key positions and serving as the ultimate gatekeeper to the Pope, who has fewer direct meetings than his predecessor had and stays focused on his writings and continuing his work as guardian of church doctrine. "Bertone has a stranglehold over things," says the Vatican official critical of the No. 2 man. "But that may be what Pope wants...
...Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi has offered some signs that the Curia is responding, including his posting updated rules on the Internet about reporting abusive priests to the civil authorities and a hint that the Pope may meet with victims during his trip this weekend to the island nation of Malta. Still, Lombardi and others tend not to have easy access to the Pope, who is ultimately the one who must take the lead...