The Holy Spirit chooses the pope's conclave, they say. The problem is that large powers are besides trying to replace him, and cardinals can sometimes perceive to them alternatively than to God's voice. Why?
Political forces have influenced the Pope's election since Catholic religion became legal in the Romanum Empire. This was done by the prefects of the City of Rome, Roman emperors, later German emperors, kings, mighty families. This frequently happened openly: Cardinals were present at the College of Cardinals, whose appointment the pope agreed with the rulers. Their occupation was to block unwanted candidacy. The last specified example was Polish Cardinal Jan Puzyna, who as cardinale della corona He exercised an informal exclusive law in 1903, blocking the conclave candidacy of Cardinal Mariano Rampolli del Tindaro. In the following years, theoretically, there was no specified interference, due to the fact that St. Pius X banned exclusive.
But the powers did not lose interest in the election of the pope. They lost at most an easy way to influence the choice, but they did not abandon attempts to choose the setting.
How can it be today? We can imagine a variety of practices. The simplest thing is, of course, the acquisition by any cardinal power, which will later represent his interests, nevertheless informally. This is prohibited by the law of the Church and threatened by excommunication, but there is no reason to believe that all cardinal cares. This may peculiarly apply to those active in homosexual structures. specified people frequently find themselves on the radar of the service, are recruited, their career is supported – from the bishop possibly even to the cardinalate.
Tools? There you go. In 2021, the U.S. portal “The Pillar” described that at least 2 powers – China and America – could have access to data from applications for homosexuals, which was besides utilized in the Vatican.
"The Pillar" obtained data from 26 weeks in 2018. During this time 32 mobile devices broadcast data signals of dating applications from safe areas and buildings in the Vatican, which are mostly unavailable to tourists and pilgrims. So it is most likely the permanent inhabitants of the Vatican. Among another things, Grindr's application for homosexuals was used. Importantly, "The Pillar" did not take into account those places of the Vatican that are accessible to or very close to tourists. This besides applies to a number of crucial curial offices or private apartments, so the actual usage of Grindr and another akin applications may have been much higher during the period considered.
Key question: who could have access to the location data that the app collected? Grindr, created in California, was purchased in 2016 by Chinese company Beijing Kunlun Tech. At the request of the U.S. government in 2020, Grindr was purchased by the American San Vicente Acquisition.
This means that the Grindr data could have been accessed by Chinese services – and possibly besides American. For the Chinese period, the application according to The Pillar could transmit many data: location, private news etc. The company declared that it did not supply any data to the Chinese government. If you want to believe that, believe it.
Using Grindr data or akin applications can only be 1 tool utilized to control influential curialists by countries like China.
Do you think that a cardinal whose love excesses with men know Chinese service will later refuse to offer a conclave cooperation, even if the Holy Spirit would propose another candidate?
Paweł Chmielewski
