Pope Peter the Last – Cardinal Turkson of Ghana

A papal contender grabs the spotlight

http://ncronline.org/blogs/all-things-catholic/papal-contender-grabs-spotlight

Benedict isn’t dead yet and they are dragging potential successors out onto the meat runway to show their stuff. Down boys!

(BTW, according to Saint Malachy's urban legend, the next pope, the last pope, will be named Peter.)

…Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

Turkson, still young in church terms at 63, was the chief organizer of the Assisi gathering, just as he was the top signatory on the document blasting "neo-liberal" ideologies and calling for a "true world political authority" to regulate the economy. ( Come again? ) During Vatican press conferences ... Turkson was the star attraction each time.

Can anyone say, papabile?...

Because he runs the Vatican's office on peace and justice, there's a natural tendency in some quarters to assume that Turkson must be on the liberal side. In truth, people who know him say that in many ways, he's fairly conservative. For instance, when the Vatican moved recently to assert tighter control over Caritas Internationalis, the Rome-based umbrella group for Catholic charities worldwide, Turkson told people behind the scenes that maybe beefing up its Catholic identity wasn't a bad idea.

Turkson certainly does not feel bound by the canons of Western political correctness. He's bluntly said on several occasions, for instance, that theological dialogue with Muslims is basically impossible, so it's better to concentrate on solving social problems. During the recent Synod for the Middle East, Turkson was among the voices calling for a stronger challenge to Islamic governments to respect the rights of religious minorities.

At the same time, the Council for Justice and Peace under Turkson has quietly resisted efforts by some neo-conservative and free-market Catholic groups in the West, especially in the United States, to exercise greater influence on its work -- suggesting that he doesn't want the office to be captive to any particular ideological agenda.

Without doubt, Turkson sees himself as a tribune for Africa and the peoples of developing nations generally….

When do the Europeans pack their bags and move, outsource the company business headquarters south - way south, to Yamoussoukro Ivory Coast? Next door to Ghana.  How convenient. One step ahead of the prosecutors at the Hague?  A new African Vatican?  Next door to the largest church on the planet?

Inquiring minds want to know.   LOL

Please explain to me again why they built this corporate headquarters backup site for $300 million back in the early eighties?  A place to sit out the results of WWIII between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.?

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Cure for “Irish Syndrome” – Piss on Vatican’s Official Sacred Buggery Tradition – Ireland Closes Embassy

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/nov/08/ireland-vatican-diplomatic-snub?newsfeed=true

The closure of the Irish embassy to the Holy See in Rome is a major setback for the Vatican. The decision by Ireland's government brings to life a number of Vatican nightmares. First of all, it was made for "economic reasons", which means that keeping a diplomatic mission at the papal court is supposed to be expensive (implicitly, uselessly expensive). Worse, the costs just seem to be a pragmatic and neutral explanation to cover up a hot political struggle: the sex abuse scandals involving Irish Catholic priests.

But in a period of financial turmoil, economy might be a perfect reason, or excuse, for other governments to take similar steps. This has happened before. In 1867, the United States wanted to retaliate for Pius IX's alleged support to the Confederates, and the Union government simply cut off funds for the then Vatican legation (there wasn't yet an embassy). Here is the second nightmare: a potential "domino effect", underlining the failure of the Vatican in handling the sex abuse cases.

There is still a disconnect between western public opinion and Catholic episcopates on this thorny issue. The Holy See last year made Charles Scicluna a kind of "top prosecutor". Scicluna admitted at long last that paedophilia was a crime that required the church to collaborate with the civil judiciary. But Scicluna's assessment, although backed by the pope himself and aimed at the whole Catholic world, may have come too late.

The Irish action appears to confirm this suspicion. It exploded after a long and tough dispute between the Irish prime minister, Enda Kenny, and the Holy See. In Anglo-Saxon countries around the world and in northern Europe, the role of the Catholic church and its approach to individual rights has been harshly criticised. As a consequence, a third nightmare might come true: the shrinking of the international profile of the Vatican. If even a "Catholic" country, as Ireland is, can decide to forgo its diplomatic mission at the papal court, what about nations in which Catholics are a minority?

So far, economic concerns have been kept out of this discussion. Some governments have repeatedly but confidentially remarked that the costs of their embassies to the Holy See are hardly justified; and the tensions stemming from sex abuse scandals have kindled the fire. Nevertheless, Catholic lobbies and prestige have up to now prevented these states from taking drastic decisions. But the spread of the "Irish syndrome" could change this attitude.

What is viewed today as poor diplomatic management of a divisive issue both by Dublin and by Rome could create a historic rupture. Dublin was also moved by domestic political calculations. It wanted to give a signal that the country had changed even in its relations with the Catholic church, mirroring a broader anti-clerical mood. Ireland has announced the closure of its embassies in Iran and East Timor as well.

Some people also wonder whether the downgrading of these relations could be advantageous for Britain: the Holy See, in fact, always supported Ireland as a united state.

But the result is in any case a paradoxical one. "Catholic" Ireland could prove to be the pathfinder of a worrying development for the Vatican, whose diplomatic and moral weight is openly and badly challenged. If it doesn't move on rapidly, the echo of the scandals combined with the effects of the financial crisis could weaken its voice and international presence. And the closure of the Irish embassy could turn to be just a bitter appetiser: the first in a series.

Dysfunctional in America – Occupy Oakland

(“Disneyland? Fuck, man, this is better than Disneyland!” A.N.)

“Occupy Oakland protester Mike Clift runs from teargas early Nov. 3, 2011, in Oakland, Calif. Following a mainly peaceful day-long protest by thousands of anti-Wall Street demonstrators, several hundred rallied through the night with some painting graffiti, breaking windows and setting fire to garbage cans.”

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/2300-202_162-10010098-2.html#ixzz1d7TAsCq8

Caught this photo on the internet.  The thought stuck me suddenly - how dysfunctional the United States has become, has been.  For how long?  For a long time.

It is a rude thing to awaken from a gentle slumber, a dream, and into the middle of a political economic moral global nightmare.

The shift, in paradigms, along any historic road usually happens when a current nightmare, the dysfunctionality of it all, finally reaches cognizance, reality in the gated communities,(palace grounds), and ivory towers, (penthouses), of the greedy bastards supposedly in charge.

That or the mobs in the street finally storm the Palace or burn down an Ivory Tower or two.
Whatever.

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