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Pope Francis bio fills gaps left by "instant books" |
A wave of "instant books" about Pope Francis rushed into print after his surprise election last March left readers waiting for one that brought more insight into the two seemingly contradictory phases in his past. |
In "Pope Francis: Untying the Knots," British journalist Paul Vallely fills that gap by showing how the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio went from being the divisive head of the Jesuit order in Argentina in the 1970s to the humble and inclusive pastor he became once made a bishop in 1992. |
Since so little was written in English about Bergoglio, the first quick biographies depended heavily on two books in Spanish, one a long interview with him and the other his dialogue with the chief rabbi of Buenos Aires. |
Vallely told Reuters how he put together these contrasting episodes to give a fuller biography of the Roman Catholic Church's new leader. |
How did the book project start? |
I wrote a piece in The Independent (British newspaper) which explained to non specialists the symbolism of everything he did when he came out on the balcony after his election. The publishers read it and contacted me and said would you like to write a book? I said if this is going to be respectable, I need to go to Rom... |
Did you know Bergoglio or know much about him? |
No, I was one of those who stood there as he came out and said, who's he? I was completely starting from scratch. |
How did you approach this book? |
A lot of the instant books collected all the anecdotes but they didn't know what to do with them. They just kind of strung them together like a list. It seemed to me it was important to find out what the story was and tell it. I wanted the book to have a pivotal point where you say 'and then he changed.' He's had 15 ye... |
Bergoglio's critics accuse him of being arrogant and betraying two Jesuits to the military dictatorship in 1976 at the start of the so-called Dirty War. Was this the main factor in his early career? |
The Dirty War and the incident with the two kidnapped Jesuits were a symptom of the deeper issue, which is the split within the Jesuits. People in the Jesuits either loved him or loathed him. He was a charismatic figure and very forceful and engaging. One person told me there was almost like a cult of Bergoglio. On the... |
After being Jesuit provincial and heading their seminary, Bergoglio went to a smaller city to work as an ordinary priest. When he came back a few years later as auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires, he was a different man. What happened in between? |
The most difficult part was to work out how much he had changed and why. I didn't get a definitive account from anybody. But by piecing together the jigsaw from various accounts and understanding how deep his prayer life and how important the Ignatian spiritual exercises were to him, it seemed to me pretty clear circum... |
How do you account for this? |
The split in the Jesuits explained a lot about his personality. He was an authoritarian and domineering kind of character and you can still see that in him, in a funny way. I think that he's gone through some kind of spiritual process and is wrestling with that all the time. His humility is not modesty or shyness, it's... |
UPDATE: AN EARLIER two vehicle crash just after Aussie World has been cleared and traffic is beginning to flow normally again. |
UPDATE: A QPS media spokesman has confirmed only two vehicles have been involved in a earlier crash on the Bruce Highway. |
The crash is still currently blocking the left northbound lane as police await tow trucks to remove the wreckage from the road. |
UPDATE: DELAYS are expected after a multi-vehicle incident on the Bruce Highway northbound this evening. |
No one has been seriously injured in the crash which occurred just past Aussie World after 5.30pm. |
EARLIER: EMERGENCY services are on scene of a crash on the Bruce Highway at Palmview. |
Paramedics and police were called to the incident just past Aussie World at 5.34pm. |
A QAS media spokeswoman said ambulance officers had only been on scene for a couple of minutes but it was believed that up to four vehicles were involved. |
There was a time, not long ago, when one picked up a new Larry McMurtry novel with something approaching embarrassment--for the writer. |
Think of the shame-shame variations on "Lonesome Dove," a classic that didn't need prequels and sequels, at least not the lame ones McMurtry wrote. |
But his newest book, "Zeke and Ned," is not about Gus McCrae and Woodrow Call. It's mostly set in Indian Territory, not Texas or Montana or Nebraska. And he has a co-writer, Diana Ossana, perhaps one who inspired his imagination and originality. |
The story is set after the Civil War among the Cherokees in what is now Oklahoma, then known as Indian Territory, home to Native Americans affected by the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The latter resulted in the infamous Trail of Tears, wherein Indians were forced to move west of the Mississippi River, many of them peris... |
Many years after the Trail of Tears, Cherokees Zeke Proctor, who had made the trek west as a child, and Ned Christie are members of the Keetoowah Society, dedicated to preserving the tribe's customs and traditions. |
Life is rough in Indian Territory but relatively stable until Zeke, seeking revenge on white mill owner T. Spade Beck, accidentally kills Beck's wife, Polly. |
T. Spade and his evil family are after Zeke and so are Polly's kin. Eventually, the white law in Ft. Smith, Ark., intervenes after a bloody shootout in the territory courtroom in Tahleouah, where Zeke was to have been tried before a Cherokee judge for killing Polly. |
Zeke's sharpshooter friend and son-in-law Ned becomes a wanted man for his part in the courthouse violence, and it is Ned's hotheadedness that, early on, foreshadows his ultimate tragedy. |
It's an involving story, and McMurtry and Ossana add the minutiae of daily territory life, glimpses of Cherokee ways and memorable secondary characters: Isaac Parker, the eccentric hanging judge in Ft. Smith; Chilly Stufflebean, the judge's loyal bailiff; Victor Horsefly, so strong he pitches anvils instead of horsesho... |
Maybe it's because they have those Proctor and Christie names that Zeke and Ned seem less Cherokees than versions of Wild West guys, like Gus and Woodrow, who live on the edge of danger. Ned is so obviously doomed and so stereotypically brave, he sometimes seems like a stick figure. Zeke, like Gus McCrae, is a born sto... |
Despite the Zeke and Ned title, it is the women who remain with you--Zeke's wife Becca, strong and stubborn; Dale Miller, who is married to Ned's neighbor Tuxie and is even stronger than Becca; and Jewel, Zeke and Becca's daughter: Married as a teenager to Ned, whom she adores, she is surely as doomed as he is, but mor... |
Akhbar called Trump's decision "America's new Balfour." |
BEIRUT - Lebanon's pro-Hezbollah al-Akhbar newspaper declared "Death to America" on its front page on Thursday, the strongest reaction among universally critical Lebanese press coverage of US President Donald Trump's decision on the status of disputed Jerusalem. |
Trump on Wednesday officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and said he would move the US embassy there, sparking fury and frustration in Arab countries. |
Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Iran-backed Hezbollah, is expected to deliver the group's first reaction to Trump's move in a televised address at 6 p.m. (1600 GMT) on Thursday. |
Akhbar called Trump's decision "America's new Balfour," referring to the Balfour Declaration in which Britain endorsed the establishment of a Jewish homeland in the Middle East a century ago. |
"Today in Palestine there is a capable, empowered resistance that owns thousands of rockets that can strike Tel Aviv," it said. |
Hezbollah, a heavily-armed military and political organization, has fought numerous conflicts with Israel since it was formed in 1982. |
Hillary Clinton's Advantage Over Trump Grows In Battleground Map Florida goes from Toss Up to Lean D, and Pennsylvania moves from Lean D to Toss Up. Overall, though, Clinton would beat Trump if she just wins states that at least lean in her direction. |
The past month has not been kind to Donald Trump. |
He has landed in controversy on everything from how much he (eventually) gave to veterans groups to Trump University (and the judge who he declared biased because of his Mexican heritage) to his response to the Orlando shooting. |
Are GOP Women Warming Up To Donald Trump? |
National polling has certainly reflected that — Hillary Clinton has opened up a 6-point lead in the RealClearPolitics average of the polls after the two were tied at the end of May. But Trump continues to be competitive in places like Ohio and Pennsylvania because of blue-collar white voters. Polling and reporting bear... |
Still, there appears to be some earth shifting beneath Trump's feet, especially with disunity between Trump and party leaders and the pause he's giving some rank-and-file, mainstream Republicans. At the same time, Democrats have moved more toward unity. Clinton joined Trump as the presumptive nominee for her party, got... |
Because of demographics, Florida has appeared to us to be, if not leaning, moving toward Democrats, especially with Trump on the ticket. |
"Florida being Florida, the safe assumption is that the numbers will tighten into a neck-and-neck contest by November. Yes, Trump can win America's biggest battleground state, but only if the GOP closes ranks behind him. And only if he can perform far better against Clinton than Mitt Romney did against Barack Obama in ... |
A Quinnipiac poll this month showed Clinton up 8 (47 to 39 percent), though she only leads by 3 in the RCP average. Of course, while the fundamentals appear to favor Clinton there, Obama won it by less than a point in 2012 and Democrats worry that strict Voter ID laws could make it tight. |
Democrats have won Pennsylvania in every presidential election in the last quarter-century (since 1992). But Pennsylvania is a place that is an emerging battleground. |
"I'd argue Pennsylvania has leapfrogged Colorado and Virginia as the next most winnable state for Republicans. In fact, it may be on pace to claim sole 'tipping point' status. As it turns out, Colorado and Virginia are among the top 10 fastest Democratic-trending states in the nation — they are, respectively, getting a... |
NPR's Steve Inskeep and the team at NPR's Morning Edition traveled to a key county in Pennsylvania recently in The View From Here series — Bucks County. It's the kind of place Donald Trump likely has to win if he wants to win Pennsylvania. Obama won it twice, narrowly in 2012, as did John Kerry in 2004. Blue-collar whi... |
Can Trump Turn Pennsylvania's Disaffected Democrats Into Believers By November? |
That's also true elsewhere in the state as well. See Politico's piece on Cambria County in the Western part of the state. It went for Romney, but is indicative of the trend in a place that used to go for Democrats. The key in Pennsylvania — especially places like Bucks that has a higher rate of college graduates than t... |
The RCP average has Clinton just 0.5 percentage points ahead with polls this month showing her in the low 40s and 1-point, non-statistically significant, leads. Clinton has work to do to keep this state blue. |
-Georgia (16 EVs) from Likely R to Lean R: Georgia's demographic trends are unmistakable. The white versus non-white vote has drastically declined over the last couple of decades. Trump is still the favorite, but, like Obama in 2008, who finished just 5 points behind, the RCP average right now is just 4. |
-Nebraska (1EV) from Likely R to Lean R: Nebraska is one of those states that splits its electoral votes by congressional district. This one, in the Omaha area, is the most left-leaning in the state. (Obama won it in 2008.) There is a Democratic congressman there, Brad Ashford, who was endorsed Monday by the U.S. Chamb... |
-Utah (6 EVs): There's been a lot of talk about Utah and whether it should move to Lean R. Mormons remain unconvinced of Trump and his morality, and because of that he's been struggling in the polls. But Clinton hasn't seen much of a boost, polling in the 30s. No Democrat has won more than 35 percent (Obama in 2008) in... |
Given the opportunity to apologize the next morning on the same network, Pierson said grudgingly, “apologize for the timeline,” before launching into another full-throated defense of Trump. |
Now we’re talking! Maybe this means the Trump team is finally making its long-awaited pivot to a more restrained general election posture. What do you think about that, Joe Scarborough? |
During a conversation with former CIA director Michael Hayden, Scarborough said a “foreign policy expert on the international level” advised Trump several months ago and the Republican nominee for president asked questions about nuclear weapons that might terrify you. |
That’s…not so good. But it was “several months ago.” Let’s not hold it against Trump. How are other Republicans reacting to all this? |
Oh dear. Well, at least Trump still has Newt Gingrich. I mean, the guy defended Trump even when he said he might not defend a NATO ally against a Russian attack. That’s a true friend. What do you have to say, Newt? |
Ed Rollins, a co-chairman of a super PAC backing Donald Trump, thinks that Trump is watching too much TV, and that he needs something akin to horse blinders, because he gets too caught up in attacking his opponents. |
“I think one of Donald Trump’s singular difficulties with this campaign is that he sits and watches TV all day long and feels he has to react to every single thing that’s said against him,” Rollins said today on Kilmeade and Friends when asked how he thought Trump was handling criticism leveled at him by Khizr and Ghaz... |
Manafort said on NBC’s Meet the Press this past weekend that the change in language on Ukraine “absolutely did not come from the Trump campaign.” But this account is contradicted by four sources in the room, both for and against the language. |
no comment when asked whether this was standard procedure for all the subcommittees. |
Funny thing. Trump used to be pretty hawkish about Ukraine, as you’d expect. But that changed a few months ago. Why? |
While the reason for his shift is not clear, Trump’s more conciliatory words — which contradict his own party’s official platform — follow his recent association with several people sympathetic to Russian influence in Ukraine. They include his campaign manager Paul Manafort, who has worked for Ukraine’s deposed pro-Rus... |
So Manafort not only lied about this, but he was probably the guy directly responsible for softening the Ukraine plank in the first place. But what about this Carter Page guy? What’s he all about? |
“Washington and other Western capitals have impeded potential progress through their often hypocritical focus on ideas such as democratization, inequality, corruption, and regime change,” Page said last month during a commencement speech at a Moscow economics graduate school. |
….Page also suggested the United States should ease economic sanctions imposed on Russia following its 2014 incursion into Ukraine and Crimea, which was condemned in an overwhelming vote in the United Nations. In exchange for sanctions relief, Page said, American companies might be invited to partner with Russian firms... |
Page has close ties to Gazprom, so I suppose he’s pretty annoyed with the US sanctions on Russian oil and gas. And we all know how loyal Trump is to his friends, so he probably figures he should help out a pal by easing up on Russia. Plus Putin is a helluva guy anyway, amirite? |
On another subject, I’ve gotten several questions about why I’m not doing a Hillary Clinton roundup each day. It’s because she’s not doing much. As near as I can tell, she’s decided that if her opponent wants to douse himself in gasoline and light himself on fire, she should lie low and give him as much air time as he ... |
The head of anaesthetics at Northern Beaches Hospital (NBH) has resigned after clashes between hospital operator Healthscope and anaesthetists who raised serious concerns about systemic failures that risked compromising patient care. |
The departure of Alistair Boyce as the director of anaesthetics is the latest is a string of high-level resignations within the first few weeks of the opening of the $600 million hospital. |
On Monday, staff learnt the director of medical services Louise Messara had stepped down, and the inaugural CEO Deborah Latta resigned two days after the hospital's official ribbon-cutting ceremony. |
It has also emerged that Dr Messara is considering defamation action against one anaesthetist over the contents of a letter sent to several parties, including the office of Health Minister Brad Hazzard. |
On Wednesday, Dr Boyce announced his resignation as director of anaesthetics to his department. |
"Although the last few weeks have been very challenging, I am sure the department will continue to go from strength to strength," Dr Boyce wrote in an email. |
"The time has come for me to take a step back and allow Healthscope the opportunity to appoint a new head of department who will assume their role on the 20th of December." |
Anaesthetists at the Healthscope-operated public-private hospital have been at the coalface of a string of early systemic problems at the hospital including the case of pregnant patient Astrid McCrank. |
Mrs McCrank’s caesarean section was the cause of concern for many anaesthetists when staff took over an hour to prepare her for surgery because of delays and confusion sourcing blood for transfusions, a lack of appropriate equipment and poorly trained staff. |
At a meeting in November, anaesthetists threatened to cancel all elective surgeries if Healthscope did not address their concerns. |
At least two anaesthetists resigned, including one senior clinician who cited a complete failure to ensure patient safety as a key reason for his departure. |
Dr Boyce had backed proposals made by the hospital’s acting CEO Stephen Gameren in response to anaesthetists’ concerns. |
The proposals were rejected by several anaesthetists on the grounds they did not address their safety concerns and industrial relations issues. |
Dr Boyce expressed disappointment at the conduct of some of his colleagues, accusing them of "shouting from the sidelines" and failing to be part of a solution, he wrote in an email in November. |
Dr Boyce submitted his resignation on November 23 but indicated he would continue to work as an anaesthetist at NBH. |
"I look forward to playing my part in helping to create an anaesthetic department we can all be proud of," he wrote in his email to staff on Wednesday. |
Dr Boyce has been contacted for comment. |
This week, Mr Hazzard also criticised NBH doctors who had publicly spoken negatively about the facility. |
"There are a group of three to four specialist doctors who have expressed concerns publicly and I am concerned that they have not operated within the hospital structure as they should,” Mr Hazzard told the Manly Daily. |
“I think there are some individuals who have not taken a constructive approach and have talked up the negative rather than the positive. |
Mr Hazzard said he had heard many more positive than negative stories about the hospital from staff and patients. |
Dr Michael Paleologos has been appointed interim head of anaesthetics. His six-month secondment begins on December 20. |
"Michael has an established track record as a Director of Anaesthetic Services in one of Sydney's major teaching hospitals, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, and is highly regarded by his peers as an excellent clinician and leader," a spokesperson for Healthscope said in a statement. |
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