Saturday, April 09, 2005

Transparency at the Holy See

From CNET: First the Vatican moves the pope's body to St. Peter's in the middle of the day, in public view, something they've never done in the past. Then they fully televise the funeral, both on television and the internet, including cameras in little hidden positions that normally have never seen the light of public day. And now the Vatican has actually translated the pope's Polish-language Will, and has made it available as a free downloadable PDF file at their website.

What is going on at the Vatican these days, man? What happened to those tight-lipped, incense-burning peacocks I remember from my youth, who used to not even bother telling the general public about a pope's death until a couple of days after the fact? I guess the modern business practice of transparency is hitting everybody these days, even two-thousand-year-old religious institutions.