FaithWorld

(Saint Peter’s Basilica is pictured at the Vatican March 7, 2013.  REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini)

The Vatican struggled on Thursday to contain leaks from its closed-door preparations for the next papal election, highlighting a gap between the Catholic Church’s traditional secrecy and the 24/7 information age.

Details divulged from the debates appeared in Italian media again despite a Vatican move on Wednesday to influence reporting by ending news conferences by American cardinals that had begun to compete with its own daily briefings.

It was widely assumed that Italian cardinals were tipping off friendly journalists but the Vatican spokesman said it was wrong to point the finger at national groups.

He said all “princes of the Church” should tighten the vow of secrecy they took when the pre-conclave meeting began on Monday.

(Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi of Italy arrives for a meeting at the Synod Hall in the Vatican March 5, 2013. REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini)

Vatican officials on Wednesday told cardinals gathered for the election of the next pope to stop speaking to the media, as further indications emerged that a conclave would not start early next week as had been expected.

American cardinals who had been scheduled to hold their third media briefing in as many days cancelled it less than an hour before it was to have started at Rome’s North American College, where they are residing.

Monetary policy these days is complicated, ineffective, and quite possibly immoral. The complexity is inevitable; there is no simple way to ensure that the supply of money and credit is appropriate in a large modern economy. The ineffectiveness is evident: central bankers let that supply grow too fast before the 2008 financial crisis, and have unable to return monetary conditions to normal since then.

The moral lapses may be subtle, but I believe the lack of attention to the common good in the management of interest rates and the monetary system causes three serious problems.

 1) Dangerous freedom

Imagine a world in which anyone can use anything as a currency. This perfect monetary freedom would be a disaster. With strangers, I would only be willing to deal in gold, or some other scarce substance that could be carefully measured, because I would have no way of evaluating verbal or written promises to deal fairly. I might be able to trust members of my social group in economic transactions, but only because our monetary freedom was balanced by strong social constraints; they would be punished if they tried to cheat me.

(A protester, who opposes Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi, holds up his hands, which are chained together, to symbolise the lack of freedom, as protesters chant slogans during a demonstration against Mursi and members of the Muslim Brotherhood at Tahrir Square in Cairo February 22, 2013. REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih )

An Egyptian lawyer whose dissenting voice got him thrown out of the Muslim Brotherhood examines what he calls the group’s hidden radicalism in a book that has become a best-seller in Cairo.

Tharwat al-Khirbawy’s “Secret of the Temple” has been dismissed by Brotherhood leaders as part of a smear campaign.

(Cardinal Sean O’Malley, Archbishop of Boston, speaks during a news conference at the North American College in Rome March 5, 2013.
REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi)

Catholic cardinals said on Tuesday they wanted time to get to know each before choosing the next pope and meanwhile would seek more information on a secret report on alleged corruption in the Vatican.

Nearly 150 cardinals held a second day of preliminary meetings, known as “general congregations”, to sketch a profile for the next pope following the shock abdication of Pope Benedict last month.

Tagaytay city, Philippines

By Erik de Castro

I woke at dawn to the sound of a bell ringing and Gregorian Chant music at the Saint Augustine Minor Seminary compound on Mindoro island in the central Philippines. It was still dark as dozens of seminarians in the first phase of a 12-year journey to priesthood walked towards a chapel for their morning prayers and a mass.

I walked to the same chapel 41 years ago and left after more than two years in the seminary.

As I walked with them in the chilly air, I felt the seminary's sprawling compound was so big now compared to the time I was there. Since 1962 when the seminary opened, there have been 1200 seminarians who have passed through, according to Father Andy Lubi. So far it has produced 72 priests, some who have already left for a variety of reasons. From the 100 recruited during an annual vocation campaign, 12 is the average number of candidates that enter the seminary per year.

(Security and residents inspect the site where a car bomb exploded in front of the gold-domed Shi’ite shrine of Sayyida Zeinab in southern Damascus, June 14, 2012.)

Shi’ite fighters from Iraq and Lebanon have joined fellow Shi’ite Syrian gunmen to defend a shrine south of Damascus which they fear is threatened by Sunni rebels battling President Bashar al-Assad.

The presence of Shi’ite combatants from neighboring states – confirmed by sources in Iraq and Syria and highlighted in videos glorifying their mission – underlines how Syria’s conflict is inflaming sectarian feelings in the region.

(Pope Benedict XVI (R) is greeted by Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Archbishop of Quebec and Primate of Canada during a meeting with seminarians outside St. Pantaleon Church in Cologne, Germany, in this August 19, 2005 file photo. REUTERS/Pier Paolo Cito)

Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, one of the leading candidates to succeed Pope Benedict, suggested in an interview with Canada’s national broadcaster that other candidates for pope might do a better job.

“I have to be ready even if I think that probably others could do it better,” Ouellet, 68, one of a handful of cardinals seen as papal material, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp in an interview published late on Sunday.

(Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) attends the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem March 3, 2013. REUTERS/Gali Tibbon)

A surprise alliance between far-right and centrist Israeli political stars who reject privileges for ultra-orthodox Jews is frustrating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s efforts to form a new government.

More than a month after Israel’s election, Netanyahu is still without a new coalition, his hopes of enlisting traditionally loyal ultra-Orthodox cabinet partners challenged by a pact between newcomers Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett.

(Argentinian Cardinal Leonardo Sandri arrives for a meeting at the Synod Hall in the Vatican March 4, 2013. REUTERS/Max Rossi )

The Roman Catholic Church must open itself up to women in the next pontificate, giving them more leadership positions in the Vatican and beyond, according to a senior cardinal who will be influential in electing the next pope.

In an exclusive interview with Reuters, Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, 69, an Argentine, also said the next pope should not be chosen according to a geographic area but must be a “saintly man” qualified to lead the Church in a time of crisis.