✣ Highlights from the week online
Curial voice at next conclave shrinks At Crux, John Allen considered the diminished curial influence in the election of a new pope after Francis’s creation of 17 new cardinals. During his papacy, only 13 per cent of Pope Francis’s cardinal picks have been Vatican officials. Traditionally, at least a quarter of cardinals are based in the Vatican. Although the shift in power means that the leadership is more representative of the Church as a whole, Allen suggests that “Vatican officials often represent the institutional memory of the Church and provide a firebreak against the Church being swept away by the shifting tides of a given era’s fashions”. However, John Thavis, writing on his blog, said that while the curial bloc was declining, it still “remained strong”. He pointed out that 34 per cent of cardinal-electors were either Vatican officials or had had posts at the Vatican before. Sculptor recreates what ISIS destroyed Aleteia has covered the inspirational story of an Assyrian Christian fighting ISIS through art. After the destruction of historic artefacts and ancient monasteries in Mosul two years ago, 17-year-old Nenous Thabit decided to sculpt statues in the style of those ISIS had destroyed. Under the guidance of his father, who is a sculptor himself, Nerious Thabit has already created 18 Assyrian statues and one mural. Nerious Thabit said: “They waged a war on art and culture, so I decided to fight them with art.” He explained that he hoped to continue a tradition that was in danger of being lost. He told CNN: “In Iraq, there are people who are killed because they are sculptors; because they are artists. ISIS view them as apostate … So continuing to sculpt is a message that we will not be intimidated by those devils.” Ex-gangster helps hooligan find God A former football hooligan has told Vatican Radio how he rediscovered his Catholic faith thanks to an ex-gangster. Niall Slattery said he had had a troubled childhood and fell into the wrong crowd after leaving school at the age of 15. He became part of a gang that went to football matches just to fight. “Deep down inside, I knew the way I was living was wrong, and I was always drinking too much and getting into some sort of trouble. There was a massive emptiness,” he said. After falling sick, Slattery sought help from his mother, who told him: “You’ve got to start to pray.” She took him to church, where he met former gangster John Pridmore. Slattery related to Pridmore’s dark past, he said, and began attending his retreats and working alongside him on community projects.“I knew God was real. I knew that even if we get it wrong sometimes, even badly wrong, God never gives up on us,” Slattery said.
