UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism
Jerry Slevin
There has been one papal election in three decades. The next Pope could reign for decades. Current voting Cardinals were selected almost entirely either by Benedict XVI or by John Paul II while Benedict served as his key advisor. Benedict, with his Cardinal appointments, increased substantially the overall voting percentage held by Vatican based Cardinals. Significantly, he also eliminated in 2007 the majority vote “deadlock breaking” vote provision that John Paul II had introduced in 1996. This now effectively gives a one-third minority of voting Cardinals a veto over a papal election candidate, enhancing the power of the Vatican Cardinals’ voting bloc. It also helps explain, to me at least, how Benedict got sufficient Cardinals’ votes to be elected Pope in 2005.
Significantly, however, it also gives other minority voting blocs of Cardinals an opportunity to block an election until a candidate is proposed that is acceptable to them. For more explanation, please see my statement, “Is the Pope Panicking Over Sex Scandals, or Political Polls, or Both?” at http://wp.me/P2YEZ3-gg .
It seems evident, and even understandable, that Benedict is preparing for his successor, including with his Cardinal and other appointments, such as the new conservative head of the Vatican’s doctrinal commission and pro-cleric chief canon law prosecutor. Benedict has established with the Catechism and the new Liturgy his personal view of doctrine and ritual as the “law of the land”.
By beatifying John Paul II, Benedict has put a “mystical” aura on their joint program to entrench even deeper the Vatican clique’s dominant control of future doctrine and discipline, most evident currently in the ruthless inquisition of Fr. Tony Flannery and the priests union in Ireland. It seemed unthinkable that the Vatican could sink the Catholic Church’s reputation much lower in Ireland, but the tone-deaf Vatican clique has managed to do so.
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