Cardinals violating their vows: a ho-hum story?

[JimG]

From Catholic Culture.org:
Cardinals violating their vows: a ho-hum story?

Cardinals violating their vows: a ho-hum story?

America magazine is running a story about the conclave of 2013. The story—excerpted from the forthcoming The Election of Pope Francis, by Gerard O’Connell—includes a precise account of the voting on the cardinals’ first ballot. Do you have any doubt that O’Connell’s account is accurate? I...

www.catholicculture.org

 

[CilladeRoma]

I read this and was outraged.
Sadly, though, I think that so many in the US are so disillusioned with the hierarchy of the Church that this was just another, “Oh, well, what do you expect from them…” moment.

 

[VanitasVanitatum]

The comments do make a good point that the Pope could have released them from the vow.

 

[JimG]

I suppose that every pope for the last several conclaves might have released cardinals from the promise of secrecy. Yet, if that is the case, why not just re-write the conclave rules to allow for dissemination of the votes, as it seems not to be very secret.

 

[Joe_5859]

I saw the original article in America:

Exclusive: Inside the election of Pope Francis

For the first time, the inside story of the election of Pope Francis, excerpted from a new book by America's Vatican correspondent.

www.americamagazine.org

It did have me wondering, where he got this info. I mean, he has an exact tally of the first round of voting. It makes it hard to dismiss as speculation.

The comments do make a good point that the Pope could have released them from the vow.

I suppose that’s possible. I’d have to wonder why he would release them from this secretly, though, rather than publicly. That wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. But I’m sure there could be a reason for doing so that I just don’t know.

 

[tafan2]

That good point is a stretch of the imagination.

I agree with the article that this should be a major scandal.
And I suppose that there is nothing canonically wrong in publishing information that should never had been released, it is morally questionable in my mind to do so. Further confirms my distaste for the America magazine.

 

[poche]

It could also be a work of fiction.

 

[Joe_5859]

It could also be a work of fiction.

That’s not outside the realm of possibility. I tend towards believing it though. America magazine (as much as I have my issues with it) is not a tabloid. I’m inclined to think they vetted it before printing it.