International
A very heterogeneous and divided conclave will elect the new pope
Despite having been elected mostly by Pope Francis, who died this Monday at the age of 88, the 135 cardinals from 71 countries who will form the conclave that will elect their successor are a heterogeneous group that is not known and without a common idea about the future of the Church, which will make them present themselves in the Sistine Chapel strongly divided.
There are many differences with respect to the conclave that met twelve years ago to elect Jorge Bergoglio: one is the number of cardinal electors, that is, those who are under 80 years old on the day of the pope’s resignation or death, which is much greater than on other occasions, and another, the largest number of countries from which they come.
“Yes, I think that the fact that the 135 voters come from 71 countries could have weight in the conclave, since a candidate needs two-thirds of the votes to be elected. In 2013, that meant 77 votes. In the next conclave, based on the current number of voters, it would be 91. To date, 68 voters come from Europe and North America,” analyzes Irish journalist Gerard O’Connell in his book “The election of Pope Francis: an intimate account of the conclave that changed history.”
In addition, “the fact that many of the cardinals do not know each other so well, except those who participated in the synod, could create some difficulties, so they will depend more on the ‘makers of kings’, who are esteemed and influential cardinals, many of them over 80 years old,” says the also correspondent in Rome of the magazine of the Society of Jesus, America Magazine.
For the analyst of the newspaper ‘Corriere della Sera’ Massimo Franco and author of several books on the Vatican, the conclave that chose Bergoglio “was born with a strong anti-Italian prejudice, because it was a conclave following the resignation of Benedict XVI and if then the unwritten slogan was no to an Italian pope, this time it will be no to a South American pope, perhaps he will probably become a European.”
Franco assures that “the conservative minority are the ones who have expressed themselves the most, but in reality there is a wide and silent gray area that he has obeyed out of loyalty, although in reality he has disapproved of many of Pope Francis’ behaviors.”
“They come from 71 nations and this is a problem because they are cardinals who do not know each other, who come from peripheral realities not only from a geographical point of view, but also from a demographic and religious point of view,” adds the journalist of the Milanese newspaper.
For Franco, the curial model has failed and also the model of Casa Santa Marta (formed by the pope and his small group of collaborators), so “there will be a discontinuity”.
While Massimo Faggioli, professor of the history of Christianity at the University of Villanova (USA), assures that with respect to 2013, “today there is no factor of a candidate already examined in the previous conclave.”
“Similar to that of 2005 is the situation of division in the Church before the decisions of the pope, which however during the pontificate of Francis emerged harshly also on the part of cardinals and bishops, in a different way than Benedict XVI,” he says.
He emphasizes that “an essential difference is the international situation, much more complicated and dangerous than in 2013, especially because of what is happening in the US and consequently in the world.”
“There are several cardinals who have been very critical of Francis on certain issues, but have lost influence and voice in recent years. They have been cautious, but in the conclave they could find support among those who are surprised and tired of a pontificate with so much novelty and turbulence,” he emphasizes.
However, O’Donnel believes that “that most substantially share their vision and are committed to synodality.
After talking to many cardinals created by Francis, voters are more likely to vote for a candidate who substantially shares his vision.”
International
China shows at the UN its “condemnation” of Israel for the “violation of Iran’s sovereignty”
The Chinese ambassador to the United Nations, Fu Cong, showed the “condemnation” of his country against the “violation of the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of Iran” after the air attack launched by Israel against multiple targets in that country, the official newspaper Diario del Pueblo reports this Saturday.
That media echoes Fu’s speech to the UN Security Council on Friday, in which he demanded that Israel “immediately stop all its military actions.”
“China (…) opposes the expansion of conflicts, and is deeply concerned about the serious consequences that may arise from Israel’s actions. The intensification of regional tensions does not interest any of the parties involved,” said the Chinese emissary.
Beijing called on Tel Aviv and Tehran to “resolve their disputes through political and diplomatic means, and maintain peace and stability at the regional level jointly.”
In Fu’s view, the Israeli attack will have a “negative impact” on the negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program: “China has always been committed to the peaceful resolution of the Iranian nuclear issue through dialogue and consultations, and opposes the use of force, illegal unilateral sanctions and armed attacks on peaceful nuclear facilities.”
This Friday, China had already expressed its willingness to “play a constructive role” to curb the escalation of tensions and facilitate conciliation, in line with its traditional position of active neutrality in the region’s conflicts.
The Israeli attack, which according to Tehran caused dozens of deaths, including senior military commanders and at least six nuclear scientists, targeted key facilities such as the uranium enrichment plant in Natanz. Numerous civilian casualties were also reported.
Israel justified the offensive by claiming that the Iranian regime is secretly developing a program to manufacture nuclear weapons.
For his part, Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, promised a “severe response” and assured that the attack would reveal the “evil nature” of Israel.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres also expressed concern about the bombing, at a time when Iran and the US The United States is holding talks about the Iranian nuclear program.
International
Donald Trump’s government pauses its program of indiscriminate raides against migrants
The government of US President Donald Trump has decided to pause its campaign of discretionary roundings against migrants in certain areas due to its apparent concern about the growing unpopularity of these methods, according to The New York Times newspaper on Friday.
According to an email to which the newspaper has had access and the confirmation of US officials, the Executive has ordered the Immigration and Customs Control Service (ICE) to pause the beatings that affect the agricultural industry and the hospitality industry.
The spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, confirmed in a statement that “the president’s instructions” will be obeyed and the portfolio will also continue to “work to get the worst illegal foreign criminals out of the streets of the United States.”
The decision points out that this campaign of discretionary arrests to try to deport large-scale immigrants is harming industries and electoral constituencies whose support Trump wants to retain for next year’s legislative elections.
The new instructions were transmitted to ICE in an email sent last Thursday asking that “all investigations/law enforcement operations be suspended in work centers in the agricultural sector (including aquaculture and meat packing plants), restaurants and hotels.”
These new guidelines come in turn after more than a week of intense protests in Los Angeles against this immigration policy and that Trump himself admitted that the raids seem to be affecting the agricultural sector, which in states like California, where beatings have intensified, depend almost exclusively on immigrant labor.
Since his return to the White House in January, Trump has implemented an aggressive policy of hard hand against immigration and as a sample of his Cabinet officials recently held a meeting with the ICE leadership to order them to carry out 3,000 arrests a day, a mandate that seems to be behind the intensification of the raids.
International
Trump says he knew “everything” about the attack on Iran and assures that the dialogue remains open
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that Washington “known everything” about the Israeli attack on Iran and that the dialogue on Tehran’s nuclear program “is not dead.”
“We knew everything and I tried to avoid Iran all this humiliation and death. I tried hard to avoid it because I would have loved to see an agreement,” Trump said in an interview with Reuters.
The US president insisted on what he wrote today about the attack on social networks, where he said he gave an ultimatum of 60 days to Tehran to reach an agreement.
“We knew practically everything. We knew enough to give Iran 60 days to reach an agreement and today it is already 61 days,” he explained in the interview, in which he said he did not know what the current situation of the Iranian nuclear program is after the attack launched by Israel, which also ended the lives of key military leaders of the Persian country.
Regarding the dialogue between the US and Iran about the nuclear program of the ayatollahs, Trump assured that “he is not dead”, that “an agreement is still possible” and also recalled that on Sunday a sixth round of dialogue is scheduled in Muscat (Oman) that they consider is now in the air.
“We have a meeting with them on Sunday. Now, I’m not sure if that meeting will take place, but we have a meeting with them on Sunday,” he said.
The United States and Iran have held five rounds of talks on the Iranian nuclear program since April, with Washington demanding that Tehran discard its capabilities both to manufacture an atomic bomb and to enrich uranium, something that the ayatollahs considered unacceptable.
Both Israel and Trump himself had warned of possible preventive attacks on the Persian country due to this refusal by Iran.
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