Vatican Revelation: Spirit of Holy Politics Played Role in Pope’s Election
Remember all those TV clips showing how every person who was involved in the selection of the Pope took a vow of secrecy?
Looks like vows of secrecy are as easily broken as vows of celibacy and poverty.
Who gave TIME Magazine the scoop? Will they be punished? And if so, how?
This week’s TIME Magazine recounts the politics behind the selection of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger as the new Pope Benedict XVI.
In the days before the conclave, almost every Cardinal who deigned to speak to the press declared that he was praying to the Holy Spirit for guidance in choosing the successor to John Paul II. The Holy Spirit’s efforts in this particular case began 18 months ago, with a stealth campaign that in the end transfigured an unpalatable candidate into the inevitable Pontiff, turning Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger of Germany into Pope Benedict XVI. The momentum, orchestrated by key Curia Cardinals, was such that a last-ditch attempt by liberals to derail it petered out after the first round of voting.
[…]
One Cardinal elector said many of the 20-member Latin American bloc closely aligned with the German’s traditionalist stance arrived intent on getting Ratzinger elected. By Tuesday, Martini, who does not dislike Ratzinger personally, withdrew his candidacy and might have even thrown his support to him.
Liberals who could not stomach that option reportedly swung over to Buenos Aires’ Jesuit Jorge Cardinal Bergoglio in an anyone-but-Ratzinger move, though several sources said the Argentine was himself aligned with the German. But the second balloting saw Ratzinger reach 60 votes. By the third, he was just shy of the 77 required for the papacy. By the fourth, he had won 95 out of 115.
God works in mysteriously human ways.
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