Implosion at the Vatican - One Can Only Hope

Two Vatican experts have used the word "implosion" to describe the current state of affairs at the Holy See: Robert Mickens, Vatican correspondent for The Tablet published in Britain, and Massimo Franco, a veteran political writer for Corriere della Sera, Italy's most prestigious daily newspaper, who said there are "conflicts within the Vatican "worthy of the epoch of the Borgias'". There's a palpable sense of fin du rà �gime in the Roman air, he says."

For the sake of their sexually-tortured victims; women and gays; all those past, present and future who will suffer hardship and shortened life spans from the alliance of Church and plutocracy; the poor, the sick and marginalized; we can only hope it comes sooner than later.

The following is an outline of the tensions and turmoil leading to these experts' prediction.

On Jan. 1, 2013, the Bank of Italy, the country's central bank which also acts as its banking regulator, shut down the ATMs and all credit and debit card services operated by Deutsche Bank's Italian unit inside the Vatican City State. Putting most tourist transactions on a cash-only basis has "cut into sales at the Vatican Museums, post office, and other shops [and] is costing the Vatican an estimated  $40,000 a day ."