The cardinals – INQ7.net is my PDI column for today.
The Western Discomfort With Death is my Arab News column for this week.
In Inside the Vatican – Monthly Catholic Magazine you can read the latest Vatican gossip revealed to the editor of the magazine, who is writing a frequently updated column on the interregnum. His latest “news flash”? Apparently, the leaked contents of the pope’s will, to be revealed to the public later today. The editor writes,
What did my monsignor source say?
That John Paul II, in his testament, names the man he believes would make a worthy successor for him, and, that the name mentioned is that of an Italian bishop.
I will not speculate further on what this might mean; it will be soon enough for such meditations, tomorrow afternoon…
This same source said that the testament contains the name of a mystery cardinal “in pectore,” but that, without the two written witnesses to confirm this name, the name will not be accepted.
The Pope Blog reports that no mystery Cardinal has been revealed. The same blog recommends an obituary in the National Catholic Reporter as the most balanced treatment of the recent pontificate, and I agree. You can read it here: National Catholic Reporter: Obituary of Pope John Paul II
Meanwhile, >>> AsiaNews.it < << Condolences for the Pope and new arrests of bishops and priests in Peking triggers an idea for a future column: if Fr. Robert Reyes and other activist priests keep running, protesting, and writing against Western abuses such as the war in Iraq, why are they so consistently silent about the persecution of fellow Catholics in China? Is it because they’re Communists first, and Catholics, second?
