"Lo 'Tzunami' in Curia"

OK, time to put my translator's hat on again.

An Italian news agency cried "reshuffle" over the weekend in the context of speculation about Cardinal Ruini's future after his 75th birthday in February, 2006. According to the dispatch, names currently being thrown around for the vicariate of Rome include Rino Fisichella, Vicenzo Paglia and the uber-hyped Bruno Forte, who Sandro Magister went so far as to predict some weeks back was B16's chosen successor.

Anyway, this passage is of some interest -- the piece was dated Saturday and this is my own translation

The next 48 or 72 hours will see published news of the destination and new charge of an Italian bishop, until now in the Vatican's nomenclature among the few whom, at Cologne, had the privilege of being near the altar where the German Pope celebrated.

This transfer will signify that the "Curial tsunami" [lo "tzunami" in Curia] awaited by many has begun in fact, and that Pope Benedict XVI has started to build a governing team of his own.

This sounds mighty ominous. I take no responsibility for its veracity, or lack thereof... I'm just the messenger, after all. But it does seem a bit more reliable than a furious insistence of rumors at week's end that a consistory was to be called yesterday morning.

But don't be so quick to think "near the altar" immediately means the liturgist. Marini has been far from the most-tipped curialist to be sent away.... Remember well that a current cardinal is all but a lock to end up in Naples, which is open for reasons of age.

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