At Crux, John Allen considered the diminished curial influence in the election of a new pope after Francis’s creation of 17 new cardinals.
During his papacy, only 13 per cent of Pope Francis’s cardinal picks have been Vatican officials. Traditionally, at least a quarter of cardinals are based in the
Vatican.
Although the shift in power means that the leadership is more representative of the Church as a whole, Allen suggests that “Vatican officials often represent the institutional memory of the Church and provide a firebreak against the Church being swept away by the shifting tides of a given era’s fashions”.
However, John Thavis, writing on his blog, said that while the curial bloc was declining, it still “remained strong”. He pointed out that 34 per cent of cardinal-electors were either Vatican officials or had had posts at the Vatican before.
Sculptor recreates what ISIS destroyed
Aleteia has covered the inspirational story of an Assyrian Christian fighting ISIS through art.
After the destruction of historic artefacts and ancient monasteries in Mosul two years ago, 17-year-old Nenous Thabit decided to sculpt statues in the style of those ISIS had destroyed.
Under the guidance of his father, who is a sculptor himself, Nerious Thabit has already created 18 Assyrian statues and one mural.
Nerious Thabit said: “They waged a war on art and culture, so I decided to fight them with art.”
He explained that he hoped to continue a tradition that was in danger of being lost.
He told CNN: “In Iraq, there are people who are killed because they are sculptors; because they are artists. ISIS view them as apostate … So continuing to sculpt is a message that we will not be intimidated by those devils.”
Ex-gangster helps hooligan find God
A former football hooligan has told Vatican Radio how he rediscovered his Catholic faith thanks to an ex-gangster.
Niall Slattery said he had had a troubled childhood and fell into the wrong crowd after leaving school at the age of 15. He became part of a gang that went to football matches just to fight.
“Deep down inside, I knew the way I was living was wrong, and I was always drinking too much and getting into some sort of trouble. There was a massive emptiness,” he said.
After falling sick, Slattery sought help from his mother, who told him: “You’ve got to start to pray.” She took him to church, where he met former gangster John Pridmore.
Slattery related to Pridmore’s dark past, he said, and began attending his retreats and working alongside him on community projects.“I knew God was real. I knew that even if we get it wrong sometimes, even badly wrong, God never gives up on us,” Slattery said.
✣Meanwhile…
✣ Pope Francis was presented with a chocolate version of Noah’s Ark at the end of his general audience last Wednesday.
The scene – weighing in at more than 140kg – included 50 teddy bear-sized edible animals. It took three days to build.
It was presented by La Band degli Orsi (“The Bears Band”), a charitable organisation in the Italian city of Genoa. Volunteers from the charity visit patients at the city’s children’s hospital every week. After being presented to Pope Francis, the ark was sent to the Vatican-owned Bambino Gesù paediatric hospital in Rome as a surprise treat for children receiving medical care.
✣ A papal adviser seems to have compared a group of cardinals to a Lord of the Rings villain.
Fr Antonio Spadaro, editor of La Civiltà Cattolica, wrote on Twitter that those who found Amoris Laetitia problematic should stop asking the “same question until you get the answer you want”.
Later that day the Jesuit priest tweeted a screen shot from the Lord of the Rings trilogy where Gandalf confronts the traitor Wormtongue, saying he would not “bandy crooked words with a witless worm”. Wormtongue was a spy for the evil wizard Saruman. Fr Spadaro later deleted the tweet.
✣The week in quotations
What we now have is the biggest debtors’ prison in European history Archbishop Welby on the impact of EU policies on Greece Speech at the Catholic Institute of Paris
There are so many obstacles between us and the spirit Martin Scorsese
Interview with the New York Times
I’m allergic to flatterers Pope Francis Television interview aired on TV2000
Prescribing a fatal dose undermines the heart of medicine Cardinal Dolan of New York on assisted suicide Statement after ‘right-to-die’ law was passed in Colorado
✣Statistic of the week
800,000 The number killed in the Rwandan genocide.
The Church apologised this week for its members’ involvement
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