3mo ago

The Tech That Safeguards the Conclave’s Secrecy

www.wired.com

11 comments

- advocating for privacy means you don't get to chose which subjects are important and which ones are not
  
  And normalising it is a good thing all-round. You want privacy to be used for trivial, unimportant things, not for it to be seen as something that only most secret vital things need, and thus something most don't.
  People would be more likely to use it that way.
- Setting aside the financial management of the church, it's one of the largest organizations in the world which tells people what the purpose of life is. Its members believe the person they're selecting has authority from God to say what actions are right and wrong.
  While I don't personally believe that, hard not to see it's a position of significant power and people have an interest in knowing or influencing the outcome.
  
  To put this into context, there are approximately 1.5 billion Catholics in the world. Thats a little under five times the population of the United States, or roughly 1/5 of the planets population.
- Total assets €5.38 billion (2023)
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_for_the_Works_of_Religion
  In total, APSA valued the total patrimony managed by the Vatican at over 2.9 billion dollars (2.7 billion euros) in 2023.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Administration_of_the_Patrimony_of_the_Apostolic_See
  
  That's actually far less than I expected.
- …just who the next Pope is going to be.
  Right, just one of the most powerful religious positions in the world overseeing a vast real estate empire worth billions to trillions of dollars, who will be appointed for life, and who cannot be questioned due to having the authority of God himself. Not important or interesting at all. /s
  
  just one of the most powerful religious positions in the world
  I struggle to think of any more powerful. The pope is also the head of a sovereign nation-state.

11 comments