Work in progress.

The Pope's death in depth

What follows is a fisking of one of the New York Times’ obligatory Sunday Catholic Church articles. These articles typically feature priests who molest small boys and the upcoming death of John Paul II.

New York Times
Pope Appoints 31 Cardinals to Group That Will Name Successor
By Frank Bruni

VATICAN CITY, Sept. 28 — Pope John Paul II announced the selection of 31 new cardinals today, a move that significantly deepened his already profound influence over the elite group of Roman Catholic leaders who will choose his successor.

[He’s the Pope. I’m not shocked that he has a “profound influence” to Roman Catholic leaders.]

The announcement came months earlier than many Vatican officials had expected it would. To some of those officials, it suggested that the 83-year-old pope and his closest aides were concerned about his health and wanted to make sure he seized one more chance to mold the future of a church with an estimated one billion followers worldwide.

[Who are these officials? Do they have names, or will they continue to have no indentity throughout this “news” article? Meanwhile, the Pope “seizing” anything makes an elderly ailing priest sound rather power-hungry]

Even before today, John Paul had appointed more cardinals than any other pope, so that all but 5 of the 109 cardinals under 80 years old — and thus eligible to vote for the next pope — were elevated by him.

[The Pope has also had one of the longest terms of any pope – 25 years. It’s no surprise that he’s had to replace a whole pile of cardinals that, in 25 years, had grown to be older than 80.]

The percentage of eligible voters chosen by John Paul will rise even higher when the men whose selections were announced today formally receive their titles here on Oct. 21, bringing the number of potential voters to more than 130.

"When the next pope is elected, we're going to see a lot more continuity than we are going to see change in policy," said the Rev. Thomas J. Reese, an American Jesuit and the author of "Inside the Vatican," a book about its culture and politics.

[Yes, this exposes the papacy as an institution that has an agenda, and wants to see it accomplished.]

"We're not going to see somebody get up and reject the legacy of John Paul II," Father Reese said. "The pope has done exactly what you or I would do if we were pope: he has appointed people who basically agree with him on the important issues."

[However, I could not be a pope. I am a girl.]

That means church leaders who share his concern for poor people in the developing world, his insistence on interreligious dialogue and his opposition to birth control, the ordination of women and an end to celibacy for priests.

[Gee, to have a new group of religious that may want to care for the poor, continue a dialogue with other faiths, respect life, and maintain the patriarchal system that’s been running the show for 1500 years.]

Today's selections included one leader from the United States, Archbishop Justin Rigali of Philadelphia. The archbishop of Boston, Sean O'Malley, was not among the names announced today, although the leader of the Archdiocese of Boston, like the leader of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, is typically a cardinal.

[We must allude to molestation; this is an article about Catholic priests.]

The list of new cardinals spanned six continents and included men from countries like Vietnam, Nigeria, Ghana and India, reflecting the church's growth and vigorous efforts in the developing world and in places that are not traditionally Catholic.

It included only six Italians, a group whose numbers and influence in the College of Cardinals has seemingly diminished during the reign of John Paul, who is Polish. His election in 1978 marked the end of more than four centuries of Italian popes.

[The author seems to be surprised that a universal church should be represented by a diversity of cardinals.]

The pope announced the new cardinals and read the names of 30 of them from a window over St. Peter's Square around noon. Roman Catholic worshipers, along with tourists, were gathered below.

He did not give the name of the 31st cardinal-to-be, holding that man's identity, "in pectore," or close to the heart. That has happened many times before, and usually signals that the man is in a country where Roman Catholics are oppressed.

During his papacy, the fourth longest in the history of the church, John Paul has selected new cardinals about every three years.

[Here the author admits that the pope has been pope for a long time, and thusly could’ve racked up quite an amount of cardinal appointments.]

But today's announcement followed the previous one, in January 2001, by a shorter span of time. That change reflected an unusual degree of drama preceding the announcement.

[Has the drama been elevated by this article?],/blockquote>
As recently as a month ago, some Vatican officials said they did not expect any new cardinals to be named until January of next year. As recently as a week ago, there were no reports or rumors to the contrary.

But over the last few days, said a senior a Vatican official, it became clear that the pope was seriously considering — and that his aides were vigorously debating — whether he should name new cardinals now.

[So says a nameless official. Is it same official as before?]

"There was concern about the pope's physical state," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

[A nameless person reports the opinions of other nameless people, all critiquing the physical condition of someone the journalist presumably didn’t interview for this story.]

On Wednesday, John Paul skipped his usual weekly appearance before an audience at the Vatican. That was one of several unexpected changes to his schedule recently that Vatican officials vaguely attributed to his health and the advice of physicians.

The pope suffers from Parkinson's disease and severe arthritis, among other ailments.

But there was also a logistical rationale for naming new cardinals now, so that a consistory — the gilded ceremony at which the newly minted cardinals receive their signature red hats — could be held next month.

[Ah ha! Is this a possible explanation for naming new cardinals? And gee, it’s buried so far down in this story. Clearly a dying pope is more seductive than a “signature red hat” ceremony and minimizing travel plans.]

Cardinals from around the world attend such consistories, and the cardinals are already scheduled to be here in late October for events surrounding the pope's 25th anniversary.

[Overall, I’m very disappointed in this article. It takes a news item and covers it up with anticipation of someone’s death.]

Posted by Julie Young at October 6, 2003 04:13 PM