This is a syndicated post from On This Rock. [Read the original article...]

Since the resignation of Pope Benedict, the American Cardinals have been doing in amazing job of capitalizing on this opportunity to teach other people about the Catholic Church. They have appeared on numerous morning news shows, and have been doing interviews with anyone and everyone. Two cardinals each day were holding press conferences open to all media. Not that my opinion matters, but I have been extremely proud of our cardinals. As Cardinal Dolan said on his radio show yesterday, it would be a crime not to talk with the media right now.  When is the world going to be more hungrily asking for news on the Church than right now?

But, as Church leadership is known for doing, yesterday it pulled out a gun and shot itself in the foot. Blaming it on the fact that an Italian newspaper had essentially the entire transcript of the cardinals’ closed door meeting, the college of cardinals issued an order – no cardinal can speak to the press.

Don’t let anyone tell you it is about making these meetings more prayerful.  The cardinals can pray all day long and they can pray together as long as they’d like as well. Prayer, I can assure you, was not the reason the gag order was issued.

The real reason was not because the Italian press got transcripts – that happened against the rules that were ALREADY in place, so tighter rules aren’t going to stop the clowns that are leaking this to the press.

The real reason for the gag order – the Americans have been saying that the new pope will need to be a guy who can reorganize and clean up the Vatican governance structure…the Roman Curia.

Guess where about half the cardinals work…the Roman Curia.

I would bet a good chunk of money that a few of the Curia cardinals were the ones who leaked everything to the Italian paper just to serve as an excuse to stop the Americans from actually relating to the world and trying to reach out and change hearts.

It is sad to see all of the Americans doing such a great job teaching; it had even gotten to the point where it almost felt like the U.S. media…dare I say it…LIKED our guys in red.

The best place to attack the Church, as the Devil has long done, is from within.

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Father John Hollowell (175 Posts)

Oldest of 11 children. Catholic Priest. Fan of God, my family and friends, Pope Benedict, John of the Cross, good movies, and football (but not football commercials).