The War Between the Catholic Cardinals

NYT OPINION: The War Between the Catholic Cardinals
By Ross Douthat
Section: Opinion
Source: New York Times
Published Date: January 28, 2023 at 02:00AM

Two essays make plain the different views often obscured by careful political maneuvering within the church.

The death of the pope emeritus, Benedict XVI, was succeeded by a small literary outpouring, a rush of publications that were interpreted as salvos in the Catholic Church’s civil war. The list includes a memoir by Benedict’s longtime secretary that mentioned the former pontiff’s disappointment at his successor’s restriction of the Latin Mass, a posthumous essay collection by Benedict himself that’s being mined for controversial quotes, and an Associated Press interview with Pope Francis that made news for its call to decriminalize homosexuality around the world.
Amid all these words, two interventions deserve particular attention. One isn’t exactly new, but the revelation of its author elevates its importance: It’s a memorandum, intended for the cardinals who will elect Francis’s successor, that first circulated in 2022 and has now been revealed by the Vatican journalist Sandro Magister to be the work of Cardinal George Pell of Australia, a leading conservative churchman who passed away just after Benedict.

Read more at: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/28/opinion/catholic-church-benedict-schism.html

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