VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter
John L. Allen Jr. | Dec. 20, 2013 All Things Catholic
Not so long ago, the yuletide season at the Vatican meant calm. The pope and the Curia went into semi-hibernation while hearing Advent sermons from the Preacher of the Papal Household while the system was on a basic hiatus, with no real drama rolling out of Rome until well into January.
In the Francis era, however, there’s no “off” switch, which makes me very glad I’ve been in Rome this week.
The pope marked the period around his 77th birthday on Tuesday with a series of decisions and gestures that collectively amounted to another important chapter in the “Francis revolution.” A tick-tock of notable developments includes the following.
* On Sunday, the Italian daily newspaper La Stampa published another blockbuster interview with Francis, this one featuring comments from the pope on conservative American criticism that his economic ideas are Marxist and a rare definitive papal response to speculation about what he might do, in this case a firm “no” to the idea of women cardinals.
* On Monday, Francis announced an earthquake at the Vatican’s all-important Congregation for Bishops, in effect steering the body away from a hard-line position on the culture wars and toward a more centrist stance. For Americans, the most notable change was bringing in Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C., and taking away Cardinal Raymond Burke.
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