Astrology of Today’s News

The No Confidence vote against Boris Johnson will be held at 6pm tonight, over fifty Tory MPs having stuck their oar in with enough-already letters – the requisite 15%. Mercury is exactly conjunct the destructive Fixed star Algol trine Pluto and square Saturn so the mood will be heavy. The Virgo Moon was exactly square Boris’s Mars when it was announced; will be opposition his Saturn exactly as it kicks off and conjunct his Uranus and Pluto in the hours thereafter. So impacting all of his overly excitable Mutable T Square. There’s also a separating Uranus in the 7^th over the start of the vote.

  If he loses on a simple majority it goes to a leadership election. If he wins, he is theoretically safe from another such challenge for a year. Though Theresa May resigned within months of the no-confidence vote she survived. Delaying the vote until after the June 23 bye-elections which are expected to be punishing for the Tories would have made a difference.

  There’s nothing much to add to previous postings where signs are unclear about a fast exit. There are solid indications of his increasing unpopularity from Solar Arc Saturn opposition his Moon in full force now and for the next two months or more; plus tr Saturn square his Solar Arc Venus and Sun. But nothing that screams ‘fired’ instantly.

  His 2^nd Term chart, 13 December 2019 11 am, will be braced for the June 23^rd bye-elections with the unholy collection of a 12^th house Saturn, Venus, Pluto in Capricorn having moved to close the Saturn Pluto conjunction to absolutely exact at the moment. This was always when the s*** was going to hit the fan with underlying dirty dealings making an impact. What is worse is that tr Mars in Aries will be exactly square the Term Venus Pluto and Solar Arc Saturn on the day itself as it moves towards the trapped, destructive Mars square Pluto by July 2^nd – so the mood will be aggravated and worsening in the aftermath.

  Given that those around the PM may be better weather-vanes – David Canzini, a right-wing Lynton Crosby strategist, was brought in this February to reset the Johnson operation and clean up the mess. He is focused on winning the next election. Though tr Neptune conjunct his Sun/Mars midpoint this year and conjunct his Pisces Sun in 2023 doesn’t suggest he’s on a triumphant streak. He looks edgy in the extreme from mid this month onwards with tr Uranus opposition his Neptune as well.

 Steve Barclay, Boris’s chief of staff, looks in every bit as bad shape with tr Neptune squaring his Mars Venus in Gemini throughout this year and his Taurus Sun catching the Eclipses.

 Guto Harri, Communications chief, 8 July 1965, is facing a run of catastrophes exactly now and throughout this year. He’s on better form through 2023 but that may be because he’s jumped ship and set up stall elsewhere.

 The Conservative Party chart, 10 May 1912, is facing a point in destiny exactly now with the tr North Node conjunct its Saturn but all indications are that it is 2023 which will see the significant challenge for change perhaps brought about by outside pressure.

See previous post: May 28 2022 below.

Rock-star executive Sheryl Sandberg is to leave Meta after 14 years as CEO during which she turned Facebook from a place to keep up with friends into a commercial juggernaut. When she arrived in 2008, FB was making $500 million in sales ‘from a ragbag of money-making experiments, none of which showed staying power.’ Last year, it brought in $117 billion, virtually all of it from the advertising machine that Sandberg built. The monthly user base has risen from 100 million to 3 billion — more than a third of the planet.

  It seemed an ideal partnership where Mark Zuckerburg would handle the geek-end while she anchored down on financial expansion.  In recent years however she has been besieged by criticism in particular over the 2016 Trump election and Cambridge Analytica data harvesting mess for which she was blamed as well as for various ‘dirty tricks’ campaigns against critics. Recently she said she was feeling burnt out and tired of being the public “punching bag” for Facebook’s shortcomings. And she leaves at a fraught time with Meta losing users to TikTok, ad revenue down because of anti-tracking software and suspicion that metaverse’s immersive version of the internet isn’t appealing to users. Stock is down by nearly 50% per cent. The exit of her ‘safe pair of hands’ at least in the commercial sense is not improving investor confidence. All of which coincides with Mark Zuckerburg’s Scorpio/Taurus heavy chart catching the Eclipses and the tr Uranus square tr Saturn hard aspects this year and next.

  She was born 28 August 1969 with an ophthalmologist father and teacher mother, scored distinctions through college and beyond, had Larry Summers as mentor and became his chief of staff when he was appointed by Clinton to the Treasury. From there she joined the three year old Google and helped turn the search engine into an advertising leviathan. It was always thought she’d ultimately go into politics. An extraordinary and driven life. He first marriage lasted a year; her second husband died suddenly young in 2015 and she is about to marry again.

 She’s a practical Sun Virgo trine a steady, financially-oriented Saturn in Taurus; with a lucky/adventurous Jupiter Uranus Mercury in Libra – and most significantly a hard-driving and can-be-ruthless Mars in Sagittarius square Pluto tied into a Pisces North Node and maybe Moon.

  Her Saturn in Taurus sits conjunct the Facebook IPO midheaven so she was the right person steering the ship. Her lucky Jupiter boosted the IPO’s innovative Uranus Pluto; and her Virgo Sun connected with the IPO Mars in Virgo opposition Neptune square North Node.

  This year’s Eclipses are rattling up Sandberg’s Neptune in Scorpio and Saturn in Taurus and she has a disempowering tr Neptune opposition her Pluto. But she’s unlikely to be coasting for long and will be well primed by 2027/28 to make a political push with tr Pluto trine her Jupiter if that is still on her agenda.

  See previous post October 29 2021 – Meta, Zuckerburg.

TS Eliot, renowned as the greatest 20th Century poet has imbedded lines from his masterpieces, The Waste Land and Four Quartets into common consciousness.

“Humankind cannot bear very much reality.”  

“April is the cruellest month.”

“I will show you fear in a handful of dust.”

  Yet the muddle of his private life left the impression of a callous, enigmatic personality. Siegfried Sassoon, his contemporary, described him as “cold-storaged humanity”. He abandoned his unstable first wife in an asylum and never visited her; dazzled an adoring sweetheart for decades with his lovestruck letters but kept her hanging on a string and eventually betrayed her; and towards the end of his life  married his secretary forty years his junior. A reviewer remarked that he followed Wordsworth’s pattern where being starved of sex arguably led to his greatest work.

 He was born 26 September 1888 7.45 am St Louis, Missouri, and had a 12^th house Sun Libra with a highly-strung 12^th house Uranus as well and a striking collection of Neptune Pluto and Moon in Gemini in his 8^th house which are opposition Mars Jupiter in Sagittarius in his 2^nd. He’d have more than his fair share of mental instability to cope with.

  The 12^th house is the chart area of the unconscious and creativity; and the 8^th house for some has this magical ability to influence the masses – for good or for ill since Hitler had the same. King George VI had Neptune Pluto in the 8^th opposition Sagittarius planets and he was given to uncontrollable rages. So there was a good deal more emotional turmoil going on in TS Eliot’s life than his stunted relationships might suggest.

  Both his first wife Vivienne, 28 May 1888, and his arm’s-length love Emily Hale, 27 October 1891, were born with Neptune Pluto in Gemini prominent. In Vivienne’s case it was conjunct her Gemini Sun so she’d always have been battened down, poor soul, and his treatment of her exacerbated her fragile state of mind. Emily had the Neptune Pluto trine Mars and a stellium with her Sun in intensely emotional Scorpio so she hung on through the years hoping he’d fulfil the promise of his passionate letters.

  Valerie, 17 August 1926, whom he eventually married for the final 8 years of his life, had been starstruck with him as a writer since her teens, married him when she was 30 and after his death tended devotedly to his estate for decades. She avoided the fey Neptune Pluto syndrome being a later generation and was a Sun Neptune in Leo opposition Jupiter in Aquarius.

  I’ve always thought that the Neptune Pluto conjunction of the late 19th Century, first in Taurus and more importantly in Gemini between 1876 and 1902 had a defining effect on the 20^th Century. It’s a curious and can-be terrifying mix of Pluto’s intensity with Neptune’s cosmic yearnings, both intensely sexual and equally rejecting of human desires.  It imbues hubris of a stratospheric scale on some who bear its stamp – ambition without limits. It produced epically brutal leaders; fostered art, especially erotic literature and scientific advances in such intangibles as electricity, radio and telephone. As well as megalomaniac ambition, it also has a propensity for scandals.

“I think we are in rats’ alley

Where the dead men lost their bones.”

― T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land.

“I have heard the key

Turn in the door once and turn once only

We think of the key, each in his prison

Thinking of the key, each confirms a prison”

― T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land

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The Queen’s great-grandchildren are making the most of a family jubilee with Louis’s balcony antics taking the edge off the formality. Even the Sussex minis are across, with Lilibet, celebrating her first birthday, meeting her namesake for the first time.

Of Kate and William’s three, Prince George the eldest with the heaviest burden to bear being in the direct line of succession, is the quietest. Born 22 July 2013 4.24 pm London, he has a final degree Cancer Sun in the well-travelled and well-read 9^th house; with a private Water Grand Trine of an 8^th house Mars Jupiter in Cancer trine Neptune trine Saturn in Scorpio, formed into a Kite by Mars Jupiter opposition Pluto. He’ll be ultra-determined but tend to live within his own bubble of reality and not be overly outgoing. With a 9^th house Venus he’s likely to marry a foreigner.

  Princess Charlotte, 2 May 2015 8.34 am London, has a friendly Sun and Mars in Taurus in her 11th with an intense Sun trine a 7^th house Pluto, sextile a helpful/healing Neptune on her Midheaven. Her Jupiter in flamboyant Leo is highlighted being on the focal point of a Yod to Pluto sextile Neptune – not short of ambition or confidence, she will make a difference.

Prince Louis, 23 April 2018 11.01 am London, is a Taurus like his sister, with a tempestuous chart. His 10^th house career-oriented Sun is trine a sensible and hard-working Saturn, but is also conjunct a wayward Uranus which in turn is square Pluto Mars in Capricorn. His life is likely to be dramatic with a fair few crises. He has an indulgent Venus in Taurus opposition Jupiter in Scorpio; and his flashy Leo Moon in his 1^st is conjunct a ‘leadership’ North Node – he’ll make a splash one way or another.

Harry and Meghan’s two follow slightly similar pattern with the eldest Archie, 6 May 2019 5.26am London being the more serious. He does have an outgoing Taurus Sun on his Ascendant but it is trine a battened-down and determined as well as dutiful Saturn Pluto in Capricorn in his 10^th. His Saturn Pluto are also square a 12^th house Venus and Mercury in Aries – so he won’t be a light-hearted gaddabout for sure. He does have an 8th house (= generous grandparents) Jupiter in a lively opposition to Mars square Neptune – he’ll be attracted to showbiz pzaazz as well as making money. If his birth time is accurate, his mother comes across as overly rigid and disciplinarian.

  Lilibet, 4 June 2021 11.40am Santa Barbara, CA, has a 10^th house Gemini Sun and Mercury trine a hard-working 6^th house Saturn sextile an 8^th house Aries Moon – destined for a public career, communicative, emotionally secretive. An expansive Jupiter in her 7th will make her a persuasive and popular social companion; but a Mars in Cancer opposition Pluto does suggest major aggravations in her life.

  Louis and Archie will clash mightily with their Capricorn planets clashing – though that may not matter much down the road.

The tortured tale of Hunter Biden’s ‘laptop from hell’ abandoned in a repair shop may finally be about to wriggle free from the smog of claims and counter-claims about disinformation. The media largely buried the story before the 2019 election partly because the Trump camp had lied and smeared so copiously it was easy to write it off as yet another self-serving falsehood and because the chain of custody of the offending emails wasn’t clear.

  The laptop content now appears to be accepted as substantially authentic and in keeping with Hunter Biden’s trainwreck of a life. It reveals the bulk of the $11 million he earned from 2013 to 2018 came largely from his seat on the board of a Ukrainian natural gas company and two deals with Chinese business interests. Despite which his drug addictions, hook ups with prostitutes and riotous lifestyle ended him up in serious debt, with unpaid taxes, leading to an ongoing federal investigation. His wife divorced him after a daughter found evidence of his affair with the widow of his brother Beau Biden, who died of cancer in 2015. The laptop contains photos and video clips showing him in a series of sexual liaisons.

  Evidence in laptop emails also show him apparently trying to leverage his father’s reputation for financial gain in Ukraine when Joe Biden was the point person for US policy on Ukraine under President Obama. The White House insists that Joe Biden had “never spoken” with his second son about “overseas business dealings”. An FBI executive said there is a national security risk when foreign powers like China see an opportunity to get close to someone like Biden.  The computer repair shop owner behind the data being made public, has written a book to be published in November giving his side of the story.

   One striking clue from Joe Biden’s chart vis a vis his defensiveness about his clearly out-of-control son is his 5^th house Taurus Moon suggesting that his (Joe’s) nurturing and comfort come from children. A daughter died young in the car crash that killed his first wife and his eldest son Beau died seven years ago. What raises the stakes are his Moon being on the focal point of a Yod inconjunct Neptune sextile Venus Sun. So he will have a distorted emotional take on situations involving his children and not find it easy to face the reality.

  This year’s Eclipses were always going to rattle up Joe’s chart with his Mars in Scorpio catching the April Solar Eclipse and the May Lunar hitting his Sun Venus. Which could just be part and parcel of rolling global crises. But significantly the late October Solar Eclipse in Scorpio will oppose his Moon severely testing his relationships, not just with the public, but in particular with his son. That repeats in October 2023 with a Taurus Lunar Eclipse close by. And by 2024 tr Pluto will be squaring his Moon for family challenges – and public approval as well since the Moon in a politician’s chart reflect his popularity.

  Hunter, 4 February 1970, has his Pluto in his father’s 10^th so he has the potential to damage pa’s reputation and career; and Hunter’s Neptune is conjunct pa’s Ascendant which again could be undermining to pa’s image.  

   He’s a Sun Venus in Aquarius with a reckless Mars in Aries opposition Uranus. Plus a see-saw, up and down Saturn in Taurus opposition Jupiter in Scorpio. He’s got a handful of discouraging, panicky Solar Arcs and transits through this year into 2023 with a logjammed Solar Arc Saturn square his Pluto in 2023 as well.

  Whatever mess he’s in won’t disappear quickly or at all.

Previous post Feb 8 2022.

Add On: Just to add to the Biden family’s angst a memoir by Hunter Biden’s long-suffering former wife and mother of his three children is about to be published. She lived through his alcohol and drug addiction, his gaslighting, his debts and the grim realisation that he was addicted to porn and prostitutes. When she divorced him, he had run through his considerable earnings from Chinese and Ukrainian investments and she was left with almost nothing.

  Born 5 December 1970 in Chicago, she’s a Sun Sagittarius with a Pisces Moon which may be conjunct Hunter’s North Node. Her Venus in Scorpio is conjunct his Jupiter and her Jupiter is square his Venus Sun. This would bring good feelings at a superficial and social level but her Mars opposition his Saturn points to running aggravations. Their relationship chart is argumentative and volatile with a composite Sun, Mercury, Mars square Uranus. The initial passion from a composite Venus square Pluto would wear off.

 Although she got on well with Joe Biden at least superficially – again because of Jupiter Venus crossovers – it was a relationship based on power and none-too-comfortable at times. The mood between them looks strained and discouraged throughout this year and next.

There is an outpouring of appreciation for the Queen as the Jubilee celebrations draw huge crowds and much local partying. Behind the good feelings there is also a sadness that the days of her reign are coming to a close. She’s gradually handing over the public ceremonies of state to Charles, though by all accounts is not letting go of the red boxes which tie her into a monarch’s daily perusal of political and global events.

  While in no way wishing to hasten her exit I wondered if her accession chart should throw up any clues to a future handover as Queen Victoria and Elizabeth 1’s did.

  Elizabeth 1 was handed the sceptre (metaphorically speaking) on 17 November 1558 on Mary’s death. The coronation took place two months later. When Elizabeth died on 24 March 1603, the Accession chart was showing distinct tremors with an undermining Solar Arc Mars closely opposition the Neptune; Solar Arc Neptune was also square the Mars; tr Saturn was conjunct the Sun and tr Uranus opposition the Uranus.

  Queen Victoria acceded on 20 June 1837 on the death of William IV with the coronation a year later. When she died Solar Arc Mars was conjunct the Accession Saturn exactly; with tr Neptune conjunct the Sun.

  The Queen’s Accession chart, 6 February 1952, has no dramatic Solar Arcs in the immediate future. Solar Arc Mars will square the Neptune in 2027 when she will be 101 and matching her mother’s longevity; and Solar Arc Pluto will conjunct the Mars by 2028.

 There is a shift this year and next as tr Uranus, preceded by tr Saturn hits on the central Aquarius Sun opposition Pluto – so there will be significant changes. But nothing like as dramatic as was showing for either Elizabeth 1 or Victoria.   

Life in the UK will not be the same.

Amber Heard was always going to be a questionable flag-bearer for the #metoo movement. But the jury’s finding against her in the Depp libel trial, while understandable, has raised concerns that the fight against domestic violence has taken a step backwards. Activists claim she has been vilified, the victim of gaslighting, as is common when abuse victims try to blow the whistle. Though the holes in her stories were too large to ignore.

  Both sound a nightmare and neither’s life has been improved with the airing of dirty laundry. See previous post 13 April 2022.

  #Metoo hit mainstream consciousness with the Harvey Weinsten allegations in 2017 when Jupiter was moving into Scorpio which sign is usually in evidence when sexual offences crop up. Pluto moving through Scorpio from 1983 oversaw stories of child sexual abuse pouring into the open. For Pluto’s swan song as it exited Scorpio in 1997 the gruesomely repellent Rosemary (and Fred) West Trial in the UK laid parental depravity bare.

 But for every movement there is a counter-movement. I wrote in 2017: ‘The outpouring of #metoo allegations of sexual abuse and harassment in the USA and UK feels like a game-changing moment, although it is in danger of saturating a public more inclined to look the other way.  It’ll only take a couple of false allegations to be exposed to run the risk of being swept back under the rug again.’

 Which was what happened after Child Sexual Abuse was finally recognised as a problem in the 1980s. It then faced a vicious onslaught from the deniers, liars, accused perpetrators and pro-paedophile lobby (it does actually exist) in the 1990s, all claiming allegations of csa were false or brainwashed in by therapists. What had finally found a voice was very nearly silenced.  But not quite. Family sexual abuse has still not regained the ground lost but multiple-victim cases against priests, sports coaches and the like have made inroads into public consciousness.

   This year’s Scorpio/Taurus Eclipses extending into 2023’s Lunar Eclipses may keep the issue foreground. As did similar Eclipses in 2013 when Jimmy Saville’s crimes were exposed as tr Saturn moved into Scorpio.

   What effect will Pluto in Aquarius have?

  Aquarius as a Sun sign despite being seen as against the biology, unemotional and unphysical does have a connection to sexuality – not surprisingly through its thinking function. Sex researchers figure amongst their number – Havelock Ellis, Alex Comfort (Joy of Sex), Virginia Johnson (half of sex-researchers + Masters), as well as writers William Burroughs (The Naked Lunch), Rabelais, Germaine Greer. It may progress our understanding of sexuality.

What may make a difference is the millennial generation born in the Pluto in Scorpio years (1983 to 1995), as well as the triple conjunction in Capricorn of the late 80s/early 90s. They are rebellious, more inclined to disregard ‘conventional’ wisdom and to rock the boat wherever possible. Ronan Farrow whose determined efforts broke the Weinstein story was born on 19 December 1987 with Pluto and Mars conjunct in Scorpio.

  All straws in the wind. The pendulum swings one way and then reverses – and jumpers on the bandwagon who make claims of groundless victimhood do real damage. But Martin Luther King’s thought is the one I hang onto. “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” While grinding my teeth about it taking so long.

Elton John in the midst of one of the longest goodbye tours in pop history will appear with Diana Ross and Queen for the Queen’s Jubilee concert this Saturday. He’s looking frail after a series of health problems from a bout of covid and injuries sustained in a fall.  His concert dates will continue this month, one being at London’s Hyde Park on June 24^th and extend across 2023. All of which seems a punishing commitment from someone who said in 2018 “It’s time to come off the road so I can fully embrace the next important chapter of my life. I need to dedicate more time to raising my children.”

  Born 25 March 1947 with an unverified time of 2am in London, Elton is a Sun Aries opposition Neptune and trine Saturn (Pluto) in Leo – impulsive, ambitious, creative and stubborn. His indulgent Taurus Moon is square Saturn (Pluto) so he will be emotionally battened down, prone to depression, perhaps a explanation for his drug problems. His Venus in friendly Aquarius is trine Uranus and square Jupiter in money-magnet Scorpio making him sociable and changeable, wanting constant change and excitement. His Uranus squares Mars Mercury in musical Pisces, magnifying his impetuous streak.

  He’s had his ups and downs recently with the tr Uranus square tr Saturn hitting on his Pluto and before than his Moon but he’s on a confident roll with tr Pluto sextile his Jupiter this year and next. Though with a few sinking moments along the way as well.

  His 30 year relationship to David Furnish, whom he married in 2014, is superficially affectionate and supportive though not easy. On the upside David’s Venus is conjunct Elton’s Jupiter and David’s Jupiter is conjunct Elton’ Mercury for a morale-booting connection. But David’s hard-edged and ultra-determined Saturn in Aquarius opposition Mars square his Scorpio Sun clashes with Elton’s Taurus Moon and Saturn Pluto; and David’s Pluto is opposition Elton’s Mars Mercury and square Elton’s Uranus.  All of that is truly difficult and when the history of their partnership is written in later years it may reflect a less than ecstatic combo.

 Their relationship chart echoes the same themes of indulgent sentiment from a composite Sun, Jupiter, Venus conjunction. Plus a power-imbalance leading to underlying resentment from an aggravated composite Mars square Pluto; and a highly-strung, needs-space Neptune opposition Saturn square Uranus.

  Both children born from the same surrogate mother, 25 December 2010 and 11 January 2013, have charts with heavy Pluto elements as well as tough Mars square Saturn, hinting at over controlled childhoods where they wouldn’t always feel free or be allowed to do what suited their natures.

   Talent and emotional stability rarely go hand in hand.

Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the “Vatican Godfather,” who for three decades was the man no one dared to cross, has died aged 94. His influence and power, though discreet, were pervasive, and all the stronger for being nearly invisible. In the words of an onlooker “he practiced Machiavellian politics on a breathtaking scale.” He was implicated in many Church scandals but never brought to book.

  He shielded numerous abusers, most notoriously Marcial Maciel, the Mexican priest who founded the Legionaries of Christ, renowned for his financial corruption, multiple illegitimate families, drug abuse, and sexual abuse of seminarians and his own children. Maciel was only cast out when Ratzinger became Pope and up to the end Soldano who had been on the receiving end of Maciel’s generosity refused to acknowledge there was a case to answer. On the day of Soldano’s final exit from high position in the Vatican in 2019, the Legion investigation reported that 33 priests and 71 seminarians had sexually abused minors over the last 80 years.

   Pope John Paul II who elevated Soldano to the prime role of Vatican Secretary of State also bears heavy responsibility for Maciel not being brought to justice during his term.

  In 2010 Soldano was still castigating from the pulpit the “petty gossip of the moment” about priest abuse. He also stopped investigations into the Vienna Cardinal Groer accused of multiple instances of abuse over decades.

  Soldano was born 23 November 1927 in Rome and was a late Scorpio or Sagittarius Sun square Neptune; with an ultra-determined, secretive (and vengeful) Water Grand Trine of Mars, Moon, Mercury in Scorpio trine Pluto in Cancer trine Jupiter in Pisces. His Sun was conjunct his indefatigable and can-be-destructive Mars/Saturn midpoint with his Neptune square which is perverse and toxic. Not short of confidence or undeserved luck but spiritually suspect and ruthless.

  His synastry with the Vatican, 7 June 1929 11 am chart, is fascinating with his mob-boss Mars in Scorpio conjunct the Vatican South Node pulling it back to less evolved levels. And his bull-in-a-china-shop Gemini North Node was conjunct the Vatican Sun.

  Marcial Maciel Degollado, 10 March 1920, was born two months before Pope John Paul 11 and had the same Jupiter Neptune conjunction in Leo which can have a compassionate, visionary side but also an inclination to over-promising, overlooking what it prefers not to see and being scandal-prone.  Maciel was a Sun Pisces with a formidable and potentially cruel Water Grand Trine of Mars in Scorpio trine Pluto trine Uranus, formed into a Kite by an autocratic Uranus opposition Saturn. His Mars in Scorpio would chime with Soldano.

   When the final investigation was carried out in the abuses under Maciel’s reign after his death a Mexican Archbishop blamed Vatican authorities for defending him over the years in “a very large criminal cover-up” and a “criminal silence.”

  Soldano was probably single handedly the key blocker over the decades of Vatican reform – though the mystery is why he was allowed to maintain his grip through various popes.