Vatican Power Struggle

Interesting story in NY Times today about a power struggle inside the Vatican between those who want reform and those who want to keep the church in the Middle Ages. We get a glimpse of it through a letter rebuking a cardinal. It's encouraging because, frankly, I thought there were no real voices of reform to speak of, let alone a power struggle, in the Vatican.

This comes on the heels of the news that the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal by the Vatican to keep abuse victims from directly suing the Vatican and the Pope, even deposing him. We had attorney Jeff Anderson on the show a few months ago about this, and his case seemed like a long-shot at the Supreme Court, which many legal experts expected would defer to international jurisdiction, since the Vatican is a state. But that was not the case, another interesting surprise. The Vatican now vows to prove in court that it should not be liable for sex abuse by priests. This will be fascinating to watch: How can the Pope on one hand apologize, while on the other hand vigorously defend the Vatican in court from being in any way responsible?