Huge challenge...intertwined with Mafia. Another huge challenge..they are selected for their at least nominal adherence to their own rules. Most are sincere..but others are sincere who won't ever be made bishop or cardinal. If you say you believe in birth control, you probably won't be made cardinal, unless you keep it to yourself until you are made cardinal.

A number are speaking up...O'Malley has been brilliant..that innocent looking smile and behind it lies a very cagy skilled way of gaming. Shonborn has spoken up and was up against Sodano (M????) and pope smacked him down. Sodano is not a good fellow from what I can tell. There are some good ones..Archbishop Martin, Tagle and Shonborn got clean bill of health from abuse victims..they want Martin for pope. O'Brien has spoken out saying celibacy would wither away and priests should be allowed to be married although he did not see it for himself..of course he has recently been cast out for making advances on seminarians and abusing his power over them. That is not tolerable of course, but I want to hear more from him. A couple of Africans have made sensible statements regarding AIDS etc. One I could possibly vote for in some capacity...international rover or something...he does not seem to care about administration and is more interested in spreading the gospel..which is great but someone needs to administer..otherwise people like Sodano fill in the gap with cronyism, probably money laundering etc.

Many many people, including myself, really do not want the one from New York. He does not seem to be an inately good person and has lied straightfaced. I get creepy vibes from him. Perhaps that is why they keep bringing up Oullett, who seems nice enough but doesn't seem to have the whatever it takes to fight the Mafia. The one the Mafia is said to hate is Shonborn, who is from a royal? family in Austria, and probably does not have to worry about pensions, old age arrangements etc. I think having much truck with a band of killers (and how did Pope John Paul I die by the way and how was Mafia involved?) is not a good arrangement for a church that is supposed to be at least well-behaved, if not holy.

So you have a big mess. Someone with guts and courage has to step up to the plate. They can outsource the theology, the pastoral stuff, the PR etc. They can not outsource taking a big, perhaps fatal, step and cleaning lup the Mafia, the child abuse situation, the money laundering etc.