Here is an idea.
The President of the Chamber of Deputies, radical Communist Fausto Bertinotti must invite the Pope to address the Italian Parliment. The Center Right is infuriated. Catholics are infuriated. The center left is even angry. The center left government of Romano Prodi hangs by a thread of left-wing coalitions. If Bertinotti invites the Pope, the loony left would go bananas, but who cares? It would steal a march on the center right.
Even if Card. Bertone and the Pope decline, the solution was offered and everybody wins.
How will Italy look in April when the ultra-left UN, full of representatives of dictatorial governments, receives the Pope around the time of his having issued his social encyclical?
So, invite the Pope to Parliment and the whole thing starts to resolve.
You can bet Bertinotti has thought of this.
In the meantime, consider the reaction of the folks with their heads screwed on correctly at La Sapienza at the absence of the Pope from their gathering. They read his speech aloud. SKYTG24 had coverage:
[flv]08_01_17_Sapienza_B16.flv[/flv]
Loading ...
Does this situation with La Sapienza really have such far-reaching political ramifications?
I’m sorry, but I have trouble seeing how this could turn out to be so influential on Italian and even international politics. I cannot really see why the Italian government, especially being as leftist as it is, would even care.
The leftists of every single western democracy seek to suppress debate about anything the leftists oppose. “An Inconvenient Truth” is a prime example thereof. I really don’t see the Italian government making any reasonable attempt to rectify the insult to the Holy Father, simply because I don’t think their cadre cares an iota.
I’m not a radical conservative; I oppose the death penalty generally, but in consistency therewith, I oppose abortion. I mostly object to the radical elements of the conservatives and liberals each of whom seek to impose their respective gameplans on all other persons without even according them an opportunity to speak.
BTW, the Giants will beat the Packers.
I wonder if the whole thing was not planned, in advance, by someone within the Papal Household (if not Benedict himself).
It’s a move of breathtaking genius, if so. What reaction could La Sapienza have BESIDES some form of (threatened) protest? Cancel in response to the threat, in such a way that forces the leftists to denounce their own. Then release the text of a speech (a very good speech) that says things VERY different then the sterotype. By doing that a small-to-medium audience is transformed into a MASSIVE audience, because so many will be forced to read the speech and say, “WOW, this guy is really different then we thought, what terrible people who tried to silence him.”
A few intermediate steps (like the ones Fr. Z mentioned), leading up to a March 19 release of the new encyclical. Follow that up, a month later, with a visit to the UN.
Folks, that’s what we call a Grand Slam.
Um….what are they saying?
Of course all this is outrageous, but I can’t get all that excited about it because it is so quintessentially Italian and Roman. Italians, whom I dearly love, thrive on these kinds of theatrical gestures and the public uproar that follows them. Remember it wasn’t all that long ago that Pius IX had to flee from the city disguised as a simple priest. Romans have been around Popes a very long time, and their hot and cold relationships with them are part of the tumultuously beautiful history of the Church.
David: Do not be so quick to dismiss the impact of this. Many people don’t realize how big an influence on the whole Church throughout the world the Roman and Italian scene can be.