{"id":95,"date":"2010-10-21T12:07:02","date_gmt":"2010-10-21T12:07:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/religionandpubliclife\/2010\/10\/cardinals-v-reform.html"},"modified":"2010-10-21T12:07:02","modified_gmt":"2010-10-21T12:07:02","slug":"cardinals-v-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/2010\/10\/cardinals-v-reform.html","title":{"rendered":"Cardinals v. Reform"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"cardinal.jpg\"The new collection of cardinals named<\/a> by Pope Benedict yesterday is heavy with officials of the Roman curia. According to Tom Reese (in an emailed piece not yet posted<\/strike> now posted here<\/a>), the curial component of the College of Cardinals has increased from 24 percent to 28 during Benedict’s papacy, and relatedly, the percentage of Italians from 16.5 percent to 20.7 percent. This reflects a notable shift from John Paul II’s policy of decreasing the number of Italians in favor of Eastern Europeans.<\/p>\n

It’s been clear for some time (at least to me<\/a> and the editors of America<\/i>) that major responsibility for the abuse crisis rests with the Curia. Here, for example, is a bit of America<\/i>‘s May 17, 2010 editorial<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Beyond taking responsibility for the crisis of sexual abuse of minors by
\nclerics, the renewal of the church must include the reform of the Roman
\nCuria proposed by the Second Vatican Council and begun by Pope Paul VI.
\nThe interpersonal and institutional practices that blocked proper
\nhandling of abuse cases must be rooted out. Many American bishops can
\ntestify to their frustration in their attempts to get support from
\nVatican offices for disciplining offenders. Along with the victims, many
\nbishops have suffered because of this. Favoritism and personal
\ninfluence can never be wholly eliminated, but they can be held in check.
\nInstitutional reform is not the most elevated religious activity, but
\nit is religiously necessary; and it is precisely the kind of endeavor
\nfor which God blesses us with the gift of wisdom.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Let’s just say that bulking up the place of the Curia in the College does not exactly send a signal of imminent reform. Nor does it bode well for the selection of a pope with the wherewithal to undertake it. Whatever else he is, Benedict is a man of the Curia. It’s where he’s spent most of his career. It’s where he feels at home. I suppose this was to be expected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The new collection of cardinals named by Pope Benedict yesterday is heavy with officials of the Roman curia. According to Tom Reese (in an emailed piece not yet posted now posted here), the curial component of the College of Cardinals has increased from 24 percent to 28 during Benedict’s papacy, and relatedly, the percentage of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":222,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nCardinals v. 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After teaching at Harvard in the Department of History and Literature for three years, he became editor of the Boston Review. In 1987 he joined the staff of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where he worked variously as a reporter, editorial writer and columnist. In 1996 he became the founding director of the Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life at Trinity College and in 1998 founding editor of Religion in the News, a magazine published by the Center that examines how the news media handle religious subject matter. In 2005, he was named director of the Trinity College Program on Public Values, comprising both the Greenberg Center and a new Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture directed by Barry Kosmin. In 2007, he became Professor of Religion in Public Life at the College. Professor Silk is the author of Spiritual Politics: Religion and America Since World War II and Unsecular Media: Making News of Religion in America. He is co-editor of Religion by Region, an eight-volume series on religion and public life in the United States, and co-author of The American Establishment, Making Capitalism Work, and One Nation Divisible: How Regional Religious Differences Shape American Politics. In 2007 he inaugurated Spiritual Politics, a blog on religion and American political culture.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/author\/msilk"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/222"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/religionandpubliclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}