Edward Gibbon had it right. In "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" he wrote: "The influence of the clergy, in an age of superstition, might be usefully employed to assert the rights of mankind; but so intimate is the connection between the throne and the altar, that the banner of the church has seldom been seen on the side of the people."

Just as everybody was told Benedict's Hitler Youth story, everybody is now being made aware that Francis has in the past been politically expedient in his dealings with various Argentinian governments.

Reality check: no-one cares any more.

The papacy has simply taken one more small step towards its inevitable irrelevancy.

One interesting sidelight though, is the current incumbent's leanings towards asceticism, which are nicely contrasted with our Australian Cardinal's penchant for spending his diocese's money on personal comforts.

I for one look forward to the newspaper pictures of Pell travelling to work on public transport.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/13/jorge-mario-bergoglio-pope-poverty

Why public transport?

What is good enough for the boss should be good enough for the staff.

As we are told in John 12:14 (KJV), "And Jesus, when he had found a young ass, sat thereon; as it is written,"

Though I accept in this age of social media we can eschew the earlier Numbers 22:28 (KJV) aspect, "And the LORD opened the mouth of the ass..."

(I wouldn't google any of those references without safesearch enabled)

Popes and cardinals leading by example would be both innovative and the Christian thing to do.

Ah. The Christian thing to do. What is the Christian thing to do? It would seem that what is done in the name of Christ or for the furtherance of a brand of Christianity is the Christian thing to do.

Thus the Crusades, the Inquisition, the witch hunts and many other activities done for Christ or Christianity are all Christian things to do.

Let the one who never sinned cast the first stone.

Don't be silly, WmTrevor.

>>As we are told in John 12:14 (KJV), "And Jesus, when he had found a young ass, sat thereon; as it is written,"<<

Where is a modern-day member of the clergy going to find a suitable young ass in Sydney?

You simply don't come across them these days.

More's the pity, Pericles... a sentiment shared by Fr. Michael Fitzpatrick. Or was it Fr. Patrick Fitzmichael?

Dear Pericles,

There are many beautiful young asses in Brisbane. Often they are covered by jeans unlike the one in Madras.

There was a young lady from Madras
Who had a most beautiful ass,
But it wasn't pink
As you might think.
But brown, had long ears and ate grass.

Pericles, I do not agree with your observation about the absence of asses.

On Sundays, you find them in buildings run by religious institutions and they come in all ages and sizes. Their eyes are agog and they take in the words of men wearing dresses and making strange movements with their hands!

Asses abound. More the pity!

Graham your attitude has changed, if I had commented with anything half as strong as the criticism of your beloved Catholic Church in this article you would have banned me for life, perhaps you've woken up at last, it seams even that well known "Catholic Bugle" of the ABC Geraldine Doogue is wavering. You "banned" me for a whole WEEK, I was lost, anguished, wandering about wondering just what will I do with my self, where will I go, what oh what do I do to make up for the time I could not spend "trolling" as you put it. I had a good laugh be cause frankly I could'n care less about OLO, EUREKA, or that other Catholicspeak site, what is rather unfair, you do know what that means don't you? is your claim of "abuse" you refused me the right of reply, and a tag is beside my name that is false, the subject of my comment at the time was a female trying to promote an image of her self that was at least 40 years younger and fawning over actor Johnie Depp, that she was old enough to be his grandmother shows the sick sexual attitude of some Catholics, in defense of her religion she claimed "60000 Catholics can't be wrong" she has appeared on a TV program crying because the Commonwealth Bank wanted it's THREE and a HALF MILLION DOLLARS BACK because her "development" scheme went bad, the article she put in this site was just plan silly and factual wrong, but you took no notice and made stupid derogatory statements about me because I dared to "critic" her work. you have ether changed "full circle" or you just singled me out.

It amazes me that for a new Pope to be given accolades as a saint and wonderful person all he has to do is do what the rest of us have to do every day: cook your own dinner, travel on the bus, carry your own bags and pay for your own hotel bill.

>>Where is a modern-day member of the clergy going to find a suitable young ass in Sydney?

You simply don't come across them these days<<

And that's the voice of someones who been out looking.

Still it would be really "silly" to generalize from ones own lack of success.

Perhaps it's just that no one is in the market for what you have on offer Pericles.

So true, KarlX.

>>Perhaps it's just that no one is in the market for what you have on offer Pericles.<<

Without the cassock and biretta, what's a chap to do? The competition is just too fierce.

Perhaps this recent statement might clarify some points in the article - for those who are more interested in the topic of the article than in … well, anyhow, here is the link:
http://www.buenosairesherald.com/article/126858/bergoglio-didnt-gave-us-up-jalics

Dear George,

Thanks for that. Those were difficult times. Archbishop Romero made strong statements and was murdered. Pope Francis tread more carefully and survived. From his record he should be an improvement over the recent popes. I really don't know that anyone could have done better under the circumstances.

This gives me an idea for a song:

Power to the papal, power to the papal
Power to the papal, power to the papal, right on
You say we want a revolution

The deafening silence of the government side on the announcement of an Argentinian cardinal becoming Pope was in keeping with their Marxist credentials.

One hopes that the Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner later had the decency to relay the government's best wishes through Argentina's ambassador to the Holy See.