When in Rome...

It’s been a strange week in the Eternal City. First the Pope abdicates, a virtually unprecedented situattion. This comes at the very moment Kevin Annett’s Common Law Court completes its trial of the Vatican for crimes against humanity, see: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/the-pope-quits.html and: http://hpanwo-radio.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/programme-34-podcast-itccs-verdict.html. As always when the Catholic Church needs to choose a new pontiff they hold what’s known as a Papal Conclave of the Cardinals, this is where all the cardinals of the Church are locked inside the Cistine Chapel and hold a meeting and ceremony in the strictest of secrecy until they’ve made up their minds. This is being prepared for right now. It is a very serious offence for a cardinal not to attend the Conclave without suitable leave; it can even lead to excommunication. However one of them, Cardinal Keith O’Brien of Scotland, is not going to Rome to take part. The reason is that he has admitted to “claims of sexual misconduct”. Note the word “claims” not “charges”. We still have no details of the exact nature of this misconduct. In fact no formal accusations at all have been made against this cardinal who is named after Winston’s torturer in George Orwell’s 1984. And if they were… well he’d hardly be the first priest ever to get away with sex offences would he? I suspect Cardinal O’Brien has other reasons not to attend the Conclave; he wants well out of it and he’s used this misconduct incident as an excuse. Why? I don’t know. What makes this all the more mysterious is that the Queen had planned a trip to Rome in the between-Popes period; Kevin says this is because she is subordinate to the Pope and cannot enter the Vatican City while one is present, but maybe there’s another reason. The plot has become more complicated because the Queen has been admitted to hospital with a stomach bug and has had to cancel her trip to Rome (She is being treated at the same hospital as Kate Middleton was, see: http://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/death-of-nurse-jacintha-saldanha.html). The media is making sure that all eyes are on the Queen by posting both the tallest and the shortest police officers in the Metropolitan force outside the front door: http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/meet-big-tone--britains-tallest-policeman-guards-queen-in-hospital-alongside-one-of-the-shortest-8518682.html. I’m afraid I have no narrative at all for this; I have no idea what’s going on, but unless this is an odd series of coincidences and irregularities then something peculiar is afoot. As for the Queen’s illness, I’d like to post a link for her doctor to read to help treat her; hope he finds it useful!: http://www.arav.org/.