![]() Well the Vatican official was fired the next day. There was a Vatican official, for example, who was secretly videotaped in his Vatican office having a conversation with a young man, obviously a conversation with sexual overtones, and that film ended up airing on a major Italian TV show. Certainly there have been episodes over the last several years of where, for example, gay priests have been found out and in circumstances that were embarrassing for the Vatican. I'm a little bit skeptical of these reports of a gay - it's called a gay subculture, a gay faction in the Vatican. ![]() When the pope then announced his retirement two months later, I think Italian journalists in particular were quick to kind of draw the lines between the dots here and say oh, it must - there must have been something so shocking in that report that the pope threw his hands up in the air and said I quit. And the cardinals dutifully interviewed people and made their report, handed it in to the pope in December. So he asked three elderly cardinals to look into that and some other issues, some power struggles that have come out into the open here in the Vatican. I think the pope realized there's something wrong with the way the Roman Curae is operating if his own butler felt he had to photocopy documents on the side and slip them to a reporter. THAVIS: Right, this report was actually commissioned by the pope last year after the VatiLeaks case. ![]() Now, I gather the Vatican has confirmed that a report of some kind has been prepared by three cardinals, right? A Rome newspaper ran a series of articles referring to a secret report prepared by three older cardinals in the Vatican, perhaps describing sexual improprieties and the existence of a gay faction that may have been subject to blackmail. But everyone here believes it's a historic making moment, and no one here really knows what's going to happen next.ĭAVIES: We'll get the process of selecting a new pope in a couple of moments, but I wanted to talk about some controversies that have arisen. It almost seems as if Benedict made his decision without necessarily scripting the entire process in advance and leaving his Vatican aides to kind of scramble for answers. Number two, there have been new questions raised every day, and the answers haven't really been forthcoming very quickly. Number one, the pope shocked them when he announced he was retiring, even though looking back you could see the signals. JOHN THAVIS: It's amazing, it's unprecedented, and I would say most people around the Vatican, including journalists, are a little bit disoriented. Thavis now writes a blog on the church on his website,, and he has a new book called "The Vatican Diaries: A Behind-the-scenes Look at the Power, Personalities and Politics at the Heart of the Catholic Church." He spoke to me yesterday from Sylvia Poggioli's home studio in Rome. Though Benedict cited his age and health in announcing his resignation, his departure comes at a time of considerable turmoil in the church: the ongoing child sex abuse scandal, a money laundering investigation involving the Vatican Bank, and recent media reports of financial mismanagement and sexual misconduct among ranking church officials.įor some perspective on the controversies and the papal succession, we turn to John Thavis, who covered the Vatican for almost 30 years for the Catholic News Service. Tomorrow he becomes the first pope in nearly 600 years to resign while in office. Pope Benedict XVI gave his last general audience to tens of thousands in St. ![]() I'm Dave Davies, in for Terry Gross, who's off this week. ![]() NOBODY KNOWS THE WAY I FEEL THIS MORNINGġ.DAVE DAVIES, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. HARD TIMES (NO ONE KNOWS BETTER THAN I)ġ. BILL BAILEY, WON'T YOU PLEASE COME HOME? (ALTERNATE VERSION)Ħ. The Queen in Waiting: The Columbia Years 1960-1965 is available as a 3LP limited edition of 2000 individually numbered copies on gold & black marbled vinyl and comes with three printed inner sleeves.ĥ. The Queen in Waiting highlights Franklin’s jazz and big-band recordings, and includes the songs “Won’t Be Long”, “Walk On By”, “Today I Sing The Blues” and “Try A Little Tenderness” This 3LP compilation album is a collection of some of Aretha’s most notable songs during her time at Columbia from 1960 to 1965. Before Aretha Franklin rose to fame, she was signed to Columbia Records. ![]()
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