Whispers

...in the Loggia, that is. Some interesting tidbits from recent posts on that blog:

Further underscoring the challenge for the Holy See and its message operation -- its effectiveness of late a worthy topic for discussion -- a poll commissioned by Ireland's Independent newspaper and reported in its Sunday editions found that 51 percent of Irish surveyed thought the pontiff should leave office, something no Pope has done since the early 15th century. [Link]

However, a prominent survivor's advocate has made a very astute observation about why this wouldn't necessarily be desirable for reform, along the lines of what we were discussing on those earlier threads:

Meanwhile, the Stateside church's most-prominent advocate for victim-survivors has said that the calls in some quarters for the pontiff's resignation weren't only "highly unlikely" to be heeded, but just as counterproductive.

In an NPR op-ed today, David Clohessy of the Survivors' Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said that "if the pope were to step down, like Cardinal Bernard Law did in Boston, it would create the illusion of reform while decreasing the chances of real reform" (emphases original).

A papal departure, Clohessy said, "would foster the tempting but naive view that change is happening. It would not address the deeply rooted, unhealthy, systemic dysfunctions that plague any medieval institution that vests virtually all power in a pope who allegedly supervises 5,000 bishops across the planet." [Link]

And on the topic of the Holy Week "surprise," that was rumored a few months back to relate to the priesthood and Holy Thursday, Rocco (and he's usually pretty up on things) says:

And given how what was intended as a celebratory year has instead found the broadest swath yet of the global church plunged into the scandals' "trail of tears," it wouldn't be sensationalistic nor unfair to expect something significant from the Pope at the one annual liturgy dedicated to the priesthood, this Priestly Year's theoretical climax: the Chrism Mass of Holy Thursday morning -- the day's one liturgy held in St Peter's, and the only papal Mass through any year at which all priests present concelebrate.

If anything, given the ferocious climate and the story's root in the crimes of the ordained, a dramatic word or move of the game-changing sort would be even more conspicuous by its absence… and, sad to say, its failure to appear would rightly be decried or, worse still, cited as more "proof" of an inability to face the magnitude of a state of affairs that, as Benedict himself observed in last week's Pastoral Letter to Ireland, "has obscured the light of the Gospel to a degree" no external assault could ever have wished. [Link]

Also, I don't want to sound all crazy or superstitious, but I've been hearing a lot about dreams lately. Perhaps it is inevitable due to the pope and bishops being in the news recently, but I've now heard of several people, at least five, whom I know from both online and in real life, who have (independently of any knowledge of each other's) had, let's say, "reform oriented" dreams about the pope and/or bishops in the past week. If you have any other reports of strange dreams like that, contact me, I'd like to compare the content with those I've already heard about, though now I'm worried any more will just be the result of suggestion from this post itself...