That Fox News has less than six degrees of separation from the Catholic Church is demonstrated in their almost orgasmic coverage of Timothy Dolan's excellent Cardinal adventure. Fox News legal analyst and NY Catholic Archdiocese employee, Peter Johnson Jr. is, along with Fox house priest, Fr. Jonathan Morris, part of Dolan's Rome posse. They both have reported about the awesomeness of Dolan's new position. The holy rolling continue, this morning, on Fox & Friends during which Steve Doocy (one of many conservative Catholics in Roger Ailes' stable) interviewed Johnson for more Dolan drooling. What was interesting, though, was the attempt, by Doocy and Johnson, to minimize what appears to be a growing internal problem in the headquarters of the world's oldest men's club. Other than that, it was simply divine.
Johnson said that the "Vaticanis experiencing its own version of Wikileaks." But no big deal because, as noted by Johnson, "When you're administering faith to 1.2 billion worldwide, you have a worldwide organization ...obviously there are dissatisfied people." He reported that "some folks have put out internal documents with regard to financial areas, with regard to possible financial irregularities, and deficits so there's been kind of a political scrum between some people here at the Vatican" and predicted that "it will go away quickly." He continued his damage control with the comment that "any large organization has these issues and the Vatican and the Church has always been a hierarchical organization led by the Pope and it's operations have always been pretty secretive." (Can we say rampant, secret pedophilia?) He added that "this is always big news when it comes out and it gives everybody something to read." Doocy was glad that Johnson was "able to answer what it's all about."
It's a little more complicated. The Washington Post reports that the leaks are coming out on a near-daily basis. There is speculation that the reason is that in June, a "European commission will decide whether the Holy See has abided by tough international anti-money laundering and anti-terror finance laws." If it is found in compliance, the Vatican will be one step closer to joining a group of countries that share information. But the leaks, which purport to show that theVatican is not on the up and up, could be an attempt to sabotage that. The leaks also show a power struggle in the top echelons of the Vatican. There is also a struggle going on between the Vatican banking apparatus and the Italian Central Bank which has reopened a case involving a 1982 Vatican Bank scandal.
Anyway, Dolan is now a "prince of the church" and that makes those at Fox very, very happy. Oh, and one thing that wasn't reported. According to the Murdoch owned, NY Post, Dolan has been stuffing his rather bulbous face with a rather copious amount of carbohydrate rich Italian food. As a result, he can't get his new 18 karat gold ring off of his rather bulbous finger. It's a complex world.
