cross-posted at New European Times
I’m now in a better position to help clear up what’s been happening, or apparently happening, in Italy in the last few days. With Berlusca, however, it’s almost impossible to predict anything (and he loves it that way, of course, being the showman that he is).
First of all, he did NOT resign. The whole thing appears to have been some kind of absolutely bizzare charade.
He went to Ciamp’s residence to discuss the situation. Apparently, Ciampi suggested to him that he go through “il passagio parlamentare” (the parliamatary route), which is just another way of saying that he should offically declare a parliamentary crisis.
There are four types of crisis, by the way, in Italy: “crisi di governo”, “crisi parlamentare”, “crisi pilotato”, and “crisi al buio”.
The first crisis exists when their are serious conflicts internal to the governing coaltion which prevent it from doing its job. The President of the Counsel (currently Berlusconi) goes to Ciampi and hands over his resignation.
The second exists when their is some question as to the ability of the governing coalition to continue to govern the nation in the light of its unpopularity or after a huge defeat like that which occured in the recent regional elections.The President of the Counsel consults with both houses of parliament and usually sets a date for a vote-of-confidence. This seems to be the option that Berlusconi is choosing at the moment.
The third (piloted crisis) is what the UDC and the National Alliance seemed to be pushing for. That is, resignation followed by the formation of a new governing coalition headed by the same leader with the same parties but with the ministries reshuffled and an (allegedly) new political program.
The fourth (crisis in the dark) is just some form of ad-hoc
extemporaneous phenomenon with no clearly defined rules or tradition.
At this point, we seem to be in the parliamentary crisis phase. But the categories are fluid so that it’s hard to tell what the devil kind of crisis best corresponds to the actual situation. According to La Repubblica, “Il Cavaliere” has decided on a vote-of-confidence set for Thursday.
But the situation is not even that simple for him. Yesterday, it was reported that Gianfranco Fini (head of AN) and others were making public statements that the coalition had reached an accord and that, as a result, Berlusconi would go to Ciampi and hand in his resignation and then form a new government, a Berlusconi bis (from the Latin for twice). All of this follows the model of the piloted crisis that AN and UDC were pushing for. Now that he has refused to resign, I’m reading that AN (a large and indispensable part of the coalition) is threatening to resign en masse from the governnment following the example of UDC.
Here’s my own editorial analysis of the situation, for what its worth:
Berlusconi has been going around for days repeating that he “will not resign” and that such an act would constitute a “slap in the face” and an embarassment to him personally. Their have also been credible reports that he fears that the UDC, Ciampi and, possibly, AN have been scheming behind the scenes to create a “trap” to get rid of him under the pretenses of a “piloted crisis.” He beleives, and I think he’s probably right in this respect, that the Christian Democrats from both the left and the right want to, ultimately, reconstruct the great old “DC della Prima Repubblica” which dominated Italian politics uninterruptedly for forty some-odd years before the complete collapse of the old system of proportional representation with Tangentopoli and the semi-revolution of the early 1980s. Both of these motives, i.e., his megalomaniacal narcissism in considering his own reputation and image ahead of the general interest and welfare of the nation, and his somewhat justified fear that others are scheming to get rid of him and are already making plans for an era “post-berlusconiana”–are at the bottom of his decision to pull a sort of head-fake to fool the UDC, AN and the media into beleiving he would resign and then, instead, come back as the undisputed leader and put them on the hot seat, challenging them to try to get rid of him overtly in a vote-of-confidence which he thinks he’s guaranteed to win because he’s still indispensable to the coalition.
The question now is whether he has not succeeded, instead, in alienating both the UDC and AN into, not only, abandoning the coalition, but possibly even voting against him on Thursday.
He went to Ciamp’s residence to discuss the situation. Apparently, Ciampi suggested to him that he go through “il passagio parlamentare” (the parliamatary route), which is just another way of saying that he should offically declare a parliamentary crisis.
There are four types of crisis, by the way, in Italy: “crisi di governo”, “crisi parlamentare”, “crisi pilotato”, and “crisi al buio”.
The first crisis exists when their are serious conflicts internal to the governing coaltion which prevent it from doing its job. The President of the Counsel (currently Berlusconi) goes to Ciampi and hands over his resignation.
The second exists when their is some question as to the ability of the governing coalition to continue to govern the nation in the light of its unpopularity or after a huge defeat like that which occured in the recent regional elections.The President of the Counsel consults with both houses of parliament and usually sets a date for a vote-of-confidence. This seems to be the option that Berlusconi is choosing at the moment.
The third (piloted crisis) is what the UDC and the National Alliance seemed to be pushing for. That is, resignation followed by the formation of a new governing coalition headed by the same leader with the same parties but with the ministries reshuffled and an (allegedly) new political program.
The fourth (crisis in the dark) is just some form of ad-hoc
extemporaneous phenomenon with no clearly defined rules or tradition.
At this point, we seem to be in the parliamentary crisis phase. But the categories are fluid so that it’s hard to tell what the devil kind of crisis best corresponds to the actual situation. According to La Repubblica, “Il Cavaliere” has decided on a vote-of-confidence set for Thursday.
But the situation is not even that simple for him. Yesterday, it was reported that Gianfranco Fini (head of AN) and others were making public statements that the coalition had reached an accord and that, as a result, Berlusconi would go to Ciampi and hand in his resignation and then form a new government, a Berlusconi bis (from the Latin for twice). All of this follows the model of the piloted crisis that AN and UDC were pushing for. Now that he has refused to resign, I’m reading that AN (a large and indispensable part of the coalition) is threatening to resign en masse from the governnment following the example of UDC.
Here’s my own editorial analysis of the situation, for what its worth:
Berlusconi has been going around for days repeating that he “will not resign” and that such an act would constitute a “slap in the face” and an embarassment to him personally. Their have also been credible reports that he fears that the UDC, Ciampi and, possibly, AN have been scheming behind the scenes to create a “trap” to get rid of him under the pretenses of a “piloted crisis.” He beleives, and I think he’s probably right in this respect, that the Christian Democrats from both the left and the right want to, ultimately, reconstruct the great old “DC della Prima Repubblica” which dominated Italian politics uninterruptedly for forty some-odd years before the complete collapse of the old system of proportional representation with Tangentopoli and the semi-revolution of the early 1980s. Both of these motives, i.e., his megalomaniacal narcissism in considering his own reputation and image ahead of the general interest and welfare of the nation, and his somewhat justified fear that others are scheming to get rid of him and are already making plans for an era “post-berlusconiana”–are at the bottom of his decision to pull a sort of head-fake to fool the UDC, AN and the media into beleiving he would resign and then, instead, come back as the undisputed leader and put them on the hot seat, challenging them to try to get rid of him overtly in a vote-of-confidence which he thinks he’s guaranteed to win because he’s still indispensable to the coalition.
The question now is whether he has not succeeded, instead, in alienating both the UDC and AN into, not only, abandoning the coalition, but possibly even voting against him on Thursday.
A lot of people have been following this wackiness over here as well as the NET. And I’ve been getting mostly the same questions. so I hope this is helpful..
No questions,please. Answers only!! Your try to tell me what the f*** is going on…
just kidding!!
Holy Crap. I can’t follow this soap opera at all. The only thing I understand about this whole circus is that there will always be clowns on the world stage good for a little comic relief. Thanks for shing the spotlight on the show.
Italian politics is, and always has been, an incredible source for serious high-brow comedy or absurdist writers.
I would recommend some of Luigi Pirandello”s short stories.
Back in the 40s or 50s, Alberto Moravia wrote great one called “the giants” or soemthing like that which ripped apart both the facsist regime and the resistance. He paid a high price, though. He was universaly condemned until very recent times.
It’s just been reported that “Berlusoni will face a vote of confidence on Thursday.” So it is now “officially” a “parliamentary crisis”. See scenario number 2 above.
Should be much simplere and straightforward from here on.
if he passes, he forms a new government to try to finish ot the legislative year. If he loses, we go to anticipated elections and bye, bye Cavaliere.
n/t
i’m glad to know their are people in the US who are interested in what’s going on outside the US, if only because it can be of educational value for both you all and myself. I’m a native American overseas reporting on this stuff, providing some insight (hopefuly) and learning about it at the same time.
It would be obviously be more exciting if I lived in Baghdad or something. Italy is usually very boring, politically speaking. But I wish to offer something that is obviously a major event over here.
I just glanced at L’Unita’ on-line. With the background information that you supplied in an earlier diary (tensions between Lega Nord and AN), I can place the reports in context.
Yes, there are those of us who find Italian politics interesting – if only to know what friends and relatives are so loudly complaining about.
So, is the economy the worst it has been in the dopoguerra? One cousin talks about la miseria piu’ nera che abbia mai visto.
Venice, are your relatives from Venezia or soemthing? Or does you handle refer to Venice Beach? Just curious.
Per quanto riguarda la sua domanda circa le conditioni dell’economia italiana generalement, non sono abbastanza bene informato sulla storia economica del bel paese per risponderle con autorevolezza. Posso dire che, secondo alcuni fonti autorevole, la situazione dell’economia attuale è staordinariamente grave, tanto che si parla della terzo-mondializzazione d’italia. E si discute di com’è successo che un paese che alcuni anni fa
era considerata uno dei sei o sette primi potenzi ecomomici del mondo abbia potuto cadere così precipitosamente in un specia di irremediable letargo.
I don’t thin it’s the absolute worst since the post-war
period. My mother lived through the immediate post-war and she assures me their is no comparison with the horrible rationing, homelessnes, electrcity shortages,
contaminate water and so on. So if you mean THAT bad, the answer is no, that’s just a bit of hyperbole. But it’s as as bad as it hs been in a long time. A large part of the blame is to be attributed to the introduction of the euro, however. Italian competitevness, such as it is, was in large part depednednt on the continued policy of currency devalution (an indirect form of protectionism) which kept out imported products and labor from places like China. Now that euro is the universal currency of Europe,that partcular tool is no longer available.
This is not to excuse Berlsconi, who has made things worse with his absurd supply-side approach of tax cuts and spending increases.
My relative lived through the second world war, and I thought her comments tended towards hyperbole. She has a son that is severely disabled because of the lack of medicines immediately following the war. She still has a blanket and quilt that my grandmother sent from California to help the family because of severe shortages in Italy due to the war. None of the family would need help from American cousins now. In fact, some of us may be knocking on their doors soon.
I do remember the cry of cheating on the conversion rate of the euro used by some merchants, which resulted in instant inflation, with the pensionati and employees receiving the fixed exchange rate. And Berlusconi saying Spendete! Spendete!
She also speaks of the thieving friends of Berlusconi, and the chief thief himself, of course, and inflated prices on government contracts. More hyperbole? I would suspect that his economic policies caused the damage, and that he also turned a blind eye to businesses at the trough.
We have noticed the introduction of Asian goods in Italy where once we saw only goods made in Italy; for example at the weekly markets – household items, and children’s clothing. And we see far fewer Fiats on the road, something that the cousins in Torino comment upon, not that they work for FIAT, but that the general economic health of the area depends on the fortunes of that company.
Isn’t the European Union concerned by the public debt that Italy is carrying? Would a center-left government be more inclined to raise taxes (hopefully in a progressive manner) than to curtail public services?
I wish some relatives lived in Venezia! Part of the family is piemontese (maternal), and part is toscana (paternal). By chance, I live in Venice Beach.
Tante grazie per la ripsota gentile, sia la parte scritta in italiano che in inglese. (Le parole italiane fanno impazzire il controllo dello scrivere quando lo adopero. Vedo che il controllo scatena una marea di lettere rosse , senza poter indicarmi se le ho scritte bene.)
I’ve been on-line far too long, so I’ll just try to address the questions you asked about Berlusoni.
Q: Are his friends and collaboraters thieves? A: Is the Atlantic ocean filled with H2O.
The European Union is so concerned, in fact, that they’re thinking about holding special emergency meeting just to discuss the Italian problem. In the midst of the “crisis”, the members of the G7 declared that the real crisis was the Italian economy no matter who is in power.
Last week the credit rating was lowered (again) by the BCE. And shortly before that there were a whole of attacks on the Italian fiscal situation by several EU organs. I really don’t know how Prodi and co. plan to deal with the situation. That’s a good point. They’re still a bit stuck in the defensive anti-Berlsconi stage and have yet to start formulating concrete proposals wrt the economy.
So now it will be Berlusconi bis?
This is so confusing to me. If the Cdl had very little support in the regional elections, how will shuffling the same people around in a “new” government resolve the problem? Won’t Berlusca actually have to do something different? And at what cost to the AN or LN?
The Lega scares me, but they have a relatively small base. Alleanza Nazionale should probably scare me more, given their popularity.
Here are just of a few of the Gordian knots and dilemmas confronting this new Berlsconi-bis governement wihtout a popular mandate:
1) The problem of public (state) employees: 1,300,000 people have been working without a contract for more than fifteen months. This is because the “Axis of the North” (FI and LN) and the “subgovernemnt” of Fini-Follini can’t
agree on thet exact amount of increase that the workers should recieve. A 95 euro increase has aldeardy been included in the appropriations, as you would call it over there, but Fini and Follini want to give more. The money can be found to satisy Fini,Follini, and the CGIL, but the reult would be resentment and alienation of Confindustria (the Italian Chamber of Comerce). A rack and a hard place.
2) In June, the European commision will being the procudres against Italy for the infraction of the prscribed limits on the deficit. Even if manges to weasel out of the punshing conseuqnces, he wil have to try to deal with the deficit by making some harsh choices:
a) cut the Irap (corpoarte tax) or the Irpef (tax on income)?
b) money to the South or the financing of great public works projects?
How do any of these ridiculous promises square with the nedd to cut the deficit?
He promiesd ALL of these in his Contract with Italy in 1991!!
that is ‘Sgrena.’ Forgive me, I am so tired.
I don’t know if you read or heard about the “leaks” from CBS or NBC that the bush admin. was about to release its findings that heldthe Italians entirely responsible for the incident and that the troops acted according to the rules of engagement. That was a fairly big deal over here, so the State Dept. publicly denied that any conclusions had been reached.
Beyond that, I haven’t heard anything new.
Thanks.
“Rules of Engagement” but the Italians were not at war with the US.
Hope the Italians will not give up. Maybe the new Italian government will not be so cozy with Bush, yes?
If and when the center-left gets elected to office,I’m sure their will still be enormous pressure on them to comform to the Bush admistration’s dictat. But I’m also sure that should the coalition led by Prodi get into power and then behave as sheepishly as Berlusconi, it would collpase almost immediatley becasue it wouldn’t be tolerated by the majority in the DS and Rifondazione.
Yesterday I read that the Roman public ministers called in General Marioli for questioning regarding communications after the freeing of Giuliana Sgrena.
http://www.basilicatanet.it/news/article.asp?id=323816
From TGCom (Mediaset!) without citing sources other than an investigation by Italian counter-intelligence. No mention of when and where this investigation took place.
Shooting is the fault of US breakdown of communication between CIA, DIA who did not inform the patrol. No imprudent actions on the part of Calipari.
http://www.tgcom.it/mondo/articoli/articolo253176.shtml
Nice catch. Hmmm…if the offical US line doesn’t change
this will another horrible bind for Berlusconi to try to weaselhis way out of. YAYYY!!!
Another question – why is the Justice Minister, Castelli, so reluctant to press the US further on behalf of the Roman public ministers?
Thanks for your time in posting answers.
Simple: because he’s a loyal servant of Berlusoni and Berlusconi, in his turn, is a loyal servant of G.W. Bush. They want this whole affair to blow over
as soon as possible without underming Berlusconi’s standing with the Bush adminitartion.
Berlusconi’s little “resigning-not resigning” act is being upstaged…
White smoke and pealing bells: They’ve elected the new Pope (sooner than expected), and that’s going to steal some of the headlines he craves so much!
The Pope will almost certainly be Ratzinger or someone even more extreme. Besides, I’m and atheist and couldn’t care less in any case. I’m trying to figure out who’s going to be leading this damned country and when…
Unfuckingbelievable, I called it about two minutes before it was declared, it’s him (Ratzinger)…
Record that time!!!!!
but you predicted it would be Ratzinger some time ago.
Will this pope have any real influence on the politics of Italy. When he makes pronouncements will the country stop dead and listen with apt respect?
As my chemistry teacher used to say:
“EEEt eeez eeematerial to me.
I’m pleased to know that someone has actually been following my diaries and comments that closely!! It’s true; I have been saying all along that it would probably end up being Ratzinger. No claims for psychic nonsense here.
My reasoning was based on two simple things:
To answer your question abiut the political implications: If Ratzinger puts into practice some of the ideas that have been attrubuted to him by people who have read and studied his writings (I haven’t), the
Church will become much more politically active than it already is. Ratzinger, apparently, believes that the hard-line anti-modernist, anti-Enlightenment agenda has not been pushed ENOUGH . The most immediate thing that comes to mind,as far as Italy is concerned, is a push for the systematic reformation and homogenization along orthodox lines of the Christian Democrats; more direct and vocal interventions by the Vatican in that vein; the increased politicazation of the priesthood; fear-mongereing throuhg threats of excommunication and eternal damnation against people who vote against the moral vision of the Church.
Whether this stuff will succeed or not depends, in part, on the Italian people’s level of scientific and philophical education and their civic responsibility.
The upcoming refernedum to repeal the hideous “legge 40” which bans heterogenous artifical insemination, the implantation of more than three embryoes and other anti-reproductive nonsense will be a test case. It’s been deliberetaly sheduled for June by the governenemtn, in accord with the dicates of Cardinal Ruini, so that almost all Italians will be on vacation
and not be able to participate.
Italians will utlimately have to say “NO” to this nonsense and elect a left-wing governement that is not in thrall to the Vatican.
Well, yes your diaries ARE interesting. But then “Ratzinger” is a name to remember, no?
The portrait you have painted makes sense because it makes Ratzinger out to be a veritable Karl Rove in Italy. He has worked behind the scenes in the recent US election. There is a letter written by him urging Catholic Bishops in the US to deny communion to anyone who is pro-choice, especially politicians. He meant Kerry.
Little men living in a world of men, scurry around the Vatican in dresses and make Church laws regarding the lives of women throughout the world. Think of it.
I’ve heard he comparisons made bewteen he and Karl Rove, Dick Cheney and other members of the neo-cons. In fact,l’Espresso published a funny article last week entitled “Conclave of the neo-cons.”
But I think their’s a fundamental difference between Ratzinger and his acolytes and the real neo-cons (Wolfowitz, Rove and Cheney) within the Bush adminsitration. I pointed this out in a comment which I just made in anser to someone else on the New European Times site on which I am currently one of the moderators.
Ratzinger, as I’m learning, is profoundly opposed to the thesis of a clash of civilizations between Christianity and Islam. He is convinced that there are many positive and desirable traits in fundmantalist Islam and that the job of the Catholic Church is the conversion of European Muslims to a form of Chrisitinaity which shares many of its fundmantal objectives and priorities (read: oprresion of women, fear of scientific advance).
This is very, very important and I haven’t seen or heard of this point being empashized in all of the discussions that I’ve come across.
He does not see Islam, even in its more extermist forms, as an enemy but as a potential ally in the holy war against modern secular liberalism and what the conservative (my cousin the half-assed theologian is an example) theologians over here call scientific “nihilism” and moral relativism. This seems to be a growinf fashion among the theocratic right.
They see the real enemy as YOU!! I.e. women and women’s freedom is at the root of all the troubles of modern civilaztion. You are the major threat to the multi- millenial hegemony and predominace of men over women
on this earth. These great giant emperors (whether it’s Ratiznger, bin-Laden, Mullah Omar, Jerry Fallwell or the hillbilly down the street who beats up on his wife and then quotes fromthe bible) who continue to stride acroos the earth like a group of Colossuses (Colossi?)
are being exposed to the world without their clothes and they don’t like it.
It’s not really as irreconcilable as it might seem. He,and the rest of the conservatives, strongly opposed JPII’s “ecumenismo” (ecumenicalism?) and interfaith conferences as dangerous precedents which could lead to a non-Christocentic vision of the world. For the same reason, they opposed the entrance of Turkey into the EU.
He has a strong Christocentric vision of the world with “Jesus as the only path to salvation” and this implies a certain level of intolerance towrd other religios faiths.
On the other hand, he seems to want to rivataize the Church’s missonary calling (i.e. conversion).
I’m not an expeert in this material, but it seems to me that they want to make the church more appealing to muslims and convert them to Christianity (the only way) by making it more rigidly anti-modern in doctrine and less hierarcical structurally.
Of course,I coud be wrong!!
But what you say makes sense. I knew that he wanted to take the Church back to the Middle Ages but The Crusades preceeds that.
Your discussion is more interesting than anything I read on Daily Kos last night where many were offended by anything less than veneration of “the Holy Father.” Maybe they were Opus Dei members. There was a lot of discussion on meanings and forms of the word “Nazi.”
R. may see liberated women as his enemy but to me, he is just a little man wearing a white dress now instead of a red dress. If you are right about his future plans, then he is a scary little man. Let’s hope reason prevails in the world so that they never materialize. He wants to join two oppressive religions into a world hegemony.
In the documentary last night “Death of a Princess” an enlightened Arab woman explains that the laws against women in Saudi Arabia do not come from Islam. They come from ancient tribal laws. She claimed that the west wants to keep those laws in place to keep Islam down. This is the first time I had heard that explanation of Sharia.
Wonder what the dress code will be if Ratzinger’s dreams come true, burqas for Catholics too.
First off, sorry about that typo.LOL..
You say: “he wants to join to reactionary religions into
one homogeneous system to dominate the world. “
That’s not exactly what I’m suggesting but something frighteningly similar. He wants to identify the elective affinities,as it were, in these two powerful and one (Islam) particularly hyper-expansive religion and try to get the followers of the more successful one to convert to a more appealing form, for them, and anti-modernist form of Christianity. This Christainaity would be about the same as it is now with respect to fundamental doctine, as I see it, but much more rigid and intolerant with respect to the observance of doctrine.
Ratzinger, for example,has called those Catholics who diagree with him on doctine and don’t attend observances regularly “marshmallow catholics” and he expresses truly enormous disdain toward such people. For him, as the Vaticanologist for L’Espresso puts it, “you’re either in or out.” I don’t know how he would go about implementing such an idea but that’s what he wants to ultimately achieve: a widespread charismatic hyper-evangalization of the Catholic Church.
But my broader point is that, even of their are no such deliberate plans to try to systematically convert the conservative Muslim population of Europe, these people must be opposed with extraordinary,unrelenting vigor by secular-minded people everywhere. The real,undeclared war for all of these movements and their reason for being is to reverse the acheivements and dismantle the fundamantal liberties of choice and free-thinking established by Enlightenment rationalism.
I hadn’t heard that explation of sharia that you refer to either,but it doesn’t surprise me. That’s kind of a long topic so I won’t go too far into that.
Good points.
Try to get the documentary “Death of a Princess” on video. Very very revealing picture of a secret society. Rich arab women who are virtual prisoners are driven into the desert by their chauffeurs (they are not allowed to drive). Once there they park and watch men dance.
Then there are the political revelations.
The west wants its money, it does not really give a cheneypant what religion is practiced there, except inasmuch as said religion is likely to impact revenues.
Other than that, the lady is correct, all that stuff that makes such good TV are pre-Islamic customs that in many cases, are directly opposed to the message in the Koran. I did a whole long rant about this on here,
The Prophet Mohammed as Feminist
I don’t think it will be successful, though, and I don’t think that it will be viewed as ecumenism.
John Paul’s going to pray in the mosque, and kissing the Koran were perceived as ecumenism, and in a time when Muslims are demonized in the west, those were effective gestures, that were appreciated, and opened a door for dialogue.
Ratzinger’s delusions of converting Muslims to save Europe will be about as well received as a similar effort on the part of Ayatollah Khomenei to save America by converting Falwellistas to Islam would be received by the US.
His statements praising Islam for being a religion as opposed to not being one are not perceived the same way in the east as in the west, just as his criticism of political activism in Islam, are consistent with his strong opposition to liberation theology within the church itself, which I do not think will be enthusiastically acclaimed in Latin America, where some very hopeful breezes are stirring, although certain sectors of western society will like it a lot 🙂
He has already alienated perhaps his greatest potential western non-catholic population – the mostly Protestant “religious right,” by having denounced other churces as “defective.”
His job in the Vatican, remember, was Grand Inquisitor, although I think they may have changed the title for publicity reasons some time back.
I have heard several analysts speculate that perhaps the church wishes to consolidate, become a smaller, more homogeneous group, and if they are correct, and that is the goal, Ratzinger was an excellent choice.
It’s not ecumenism, of course. He’s one of those who, when he was a member of the Curia, aggresively opposed the whole idea of “ecumenism” and the interfaith conferences, of JPII, as I noted earier.
He’s alleged to be an evangelist. And I think your right that he won’t succeed in converting Muslims or in much of anything else for that matter, except alienating people and promoting more hatred and intolerance. So, in that sense, he really IS a neocon, perhaps?
I don’t want to go too far out a limb though. Ultimately, we should just wait and see what he actually does. He’s alleged to be a fairly intelligent man. And he may realize that some of his ideas and writings are simply romantic fantasizing for the past or something. He could start by renouncing his ridiculous anti-evolutionary tirades (OH BOY!!!)that have been publised over here, according to l’Espresso.
She, and her family are all disappointed that Oscar was not selected, and rather horrified that Ratzinger was, but their strategy is to pray for a miracle.
God can work miracles, she told me, maybe he will touch Ratzinger’s heart and give him some common sense.
😉
I’ve always believed that people are capable of changing even the most extreme views by learning from experience and from those around them.
I, myslef, am a lapsed Catholic agnostic/atheist. But I think the whole concept of religious “conversion” must presuppose that possibiity, otherwise it’s meaningless.
As empirical evidence, we have many examples from histoy of people who have “changed their minds” rather dramatically: Saul of Tarsus, the Buddha, Mohammed, the Emperor Constantine.
An interesting case that comes to mind is Pope Pius IX who stated out as very reformist and democratic and later unded up opposing the elimination of the Papal states and democratic reforms. He’s the one, BTW,who instuted the ludicrous policy of papal infallibility.
If he could change (admittedly in the wrong direction) than I don’t see any reason why Ratzinger can’t do so in principle.
funny thing…this Berlusoni diary has evolved into a pope diary.LOL::
Sorry if I hijacked your diary, as they say.
But thank you for so much background on him!
No,that’s fine with me. I don’t mind. On the contrary. Instead of starting a new thread, it was easier to just to continue the discussion in this thread.