Pope Reportedly Wants to Share Power

To prove The Mudville Gazette is not "just" a Milblog, I give you this story on Pope Benedict XVI. Let us hope and pray it is just a little Vatican kerfuffle. (Ugh! Taranto, get out of my head!)

An American who has worked with Pope Benedict XVI has suggested the pope would embrace sharing more power with local bishops - a big issue in the United States, where Catholics have sometimes chafed under Rome's control.
Dominican Rev. Augustine Di Noia, undersecretary in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, told Vatican Radio Wednesday that it was ``significant'' that the pope had included the bishop's miter in his papal coat of arms rather than the traditional papal tiara.
He said the choice indicated Benedict didn't want to be seen as a ``monarch'' but rather as the bishop of Rome who wanted to see more collegiality in the church, the Vatican term for power-sharing with local bishops.
``It can be seen to express an enthusiastic embrace of collegiality,'' Di Noia said.
Catholics in the United States have sometimes chafed about the level of control the Vatican exercised over the U.S. church during Pope John Paul II's tenure. Others, though, say Rome had to step in because the bishops were too lax in keeping the faith.