Clash on the Inside

I'm really wondering if Sandro Magister's office is littered with cans of Red Bull, because he just keeps on going... and going... and going.... And it's a beautiful thing to watch. August is supposedly the dead zone of Vatican journalism, but not for Sandy.

As if it wasn't solid before, a reminder that Sodano isn't reading the Memos from the Fifth Floor:

"There is no clash of civilizations, there are only small groups of fanatics," Benedict XVI responded last July 20 to a journalist who asked if Islamic terrorism shows that a clash of civilizations is underway. The pope had been besieged by journalists during his first public appearance outside the protected solitude of his mountain retreat, at Les Combes in Introd, close to Mont Blanc, and this was one of his fragmentary responses.

But on July 7, a few hours after the terrorist attacks in London, in an interview broadcast by the major television networks, cardinal secretary of state Angelo Sodano expressed himself differently: "I appeal to the many men of good will to be found in all religions. In the name of the same Father who is in heaven, we must end this clash of civilizations."

And this disconnect makes the Pope trust his diplomatic corps more? If you believe that, I've got a bridge to sell you.

The Pope may not be an oracle, but that doesn't mean he's obtuse to what's going on in his Secretariat of State. Lack of message discipline of this kind -- and in a particularly delicate area -- just makes the notion of a CDF takeover in San Damaso all the more likely.

It seems that the Stateheads have resigned themselves to reality and are going out in a blaze of glory. Another month 'til the shoe drops....

-30-