This is an excerpt from the latest episode of the Holy Smoke podcast with Damian Thompson, which you can find at the bottom of this page:
It’s emerged that [Pope Francis is] going to be kept in isolation on the second floor of Santa Marta for at least two months, in what is, in effect, a hospital suite. It seems that even his top officials, such as the Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, currently fulfilling as many of Francis’s duties as possible in order to look like the next pope, will have only limited access to him. Apparently, everything will be filtered through the Pope’s Argentinian private secretary, Father Juan Cruz – now arguably the most powerful person in the Vatican next to the Pope.
It’s true, admittedly, that during his illness, Francis has continued to issue documents. For example, he signed – or was persuaded to sign, or reportedly signed – a decree extending the synodal process and Anglican style exchange of platitudes dominated by woke activists.
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