As a theology professor, I sometimes get calls to comment about “developments” at the Vatican. “Can you comment on Pope Francis shifting this cardinal here or changing that cardinal there?” “What does this mean for the Church?” “How will this affect Catholics?” I have to tell them: “I’m sorry, I don’t do Vatican politics.”
For one thing, I don’t know whether people realize this or not, but they generally don’t cover Vatican politics in graduate courses in theology. Oddly enough, “Shifting Cardinals Around at the Vatican” was not one of the courses at any of the graduate programs I attended. Nor was “Dealing with Dicasteries,” or “Cleaning House at the Vatican Bank.” For some reason, the universities generally preferred to focus on Jesus Christ, the Trinity, the Scriptures, the Church, Salvation, the Virtues, Grace, the Sacraments – stuff like that.
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