February 24 – Let’s Copy the Academy Award Voting System for all Elections; Did a Secret Papal Dossier Led to the Popes Resignation?; Italy’s Election Could Lead to Stalemate and a Worsening of the Eurocrisis

Full Program

Part 1

Part 2

Then we look into the latest scandal in the Vatican that the Italian newspaper La Repubblica claims was the cause of the Pope’s resignation. Francis Kissling, the former president of Catholics for Choice joins us to discuss the alleged secret papal dossier about a network of gay church officials inside the Vatican who were being blackmailed by a male prostitution ring. Francis has an article at The Nation “A New Pope – African, Latin American, Woman, Nice Guy – Will Change Nothing”.

Part 3

Then finally we get an update on today’s elections in Italy where the current Prime Minister is polling in fifth place behind the comedian Beppe Grillo who drew a crowd of half a million in Rome denouncing crooked politicians and bankers. Domenico Lombardi an expert on the ongoing European crisis that could be impacted by a stalemate in Italy with a center-left coalition barely holding on while Berlusconi’s Freedom People party is showing strength as the scandal-plagued ex Prime Minister offered a $5.3 billion gift of his own money to Italian voters while running an anti-austerity campaign against the German Chancellor Angela Merkel.