The unexpected leak of Pope Francis’ much-anticipated environmental encyclical has meant the return of something that not long ago was fairly common around the Vatican but had become often dormant during the two-plus years of Francis’ mostly charmed papacy: intrigue.
Who leaked it and why? Was this the work of frustrated conservatives in the Vatican,
as some experts have speculated? Does it portend big fights at a
pivotal October meeting in which church officials are expected to
grapple with homosexuality and divorce? Or is it just a tempest in a
teapot?