Cardinals Slam Isolated Pope's 'Errors'

Recent decisions fuel rare discord
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 22, 2009 9:35 AM CST
Cardinals Slam Isolated Pope's 'Errors'
Pope Benedict XVI, center, meets cardinals in the Clementine hall at the Vatican yesterday.   (AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano)

In an unusual public display of church disharmony, cardinals are pushing back against the pope for being out of touch as controversies swirl over recent decisions, the Times of London reports. The pope spends too much of his day in solitude with his books, critics charge. “People feel that the pope is governing in a very monarchical way,” said a Vatican analyst. “He fails to consult bishops and he has isolated himself by ignoring advice.”

Benedict XVI recently sparked an uproar by revoking the excommunication of a bishop who has denied that Nazi gas chambers existed. The move prompted a German cardinal to cite “misunderstandings and management errors” in the Vatican. Dissatisfied after a meeting with the pope, an Austrian cardinal called a gathering of bishops who urged “scrupulousness” and “sensitivity” from the Vatican.
(More Pope Benedict XVI stories.)

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