OK, I was not anywhere near the forum, but at Villa Richardson, the residence of the U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See, for their annual (anticipatory) Independence Day celebration. But, I have been wanting to use that line since I got to Rome, and never quite worked it in.

So, at Roman noon today, I saw an update from the Vatican’s new-ish news mega-portal, http://www.news.va, officially announcing Cardinal Levada’s retirement and the appointment of Bishop Gerhard Müller to the post of Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. So, I reposted it on Facebook.

Tonight, at the Embassy’s Independence Day party, about eight hours later, a curial monsignor mentions to me he heard about the appointment through my Facebook post. “What, there’s no internal memo on these things?” I asked. He just laughed.

Having just celebrated the patronal feast of the city and Church of Rome, it serves as a reminder that, in the Vatican, you can rob Peter to pay the left hand while the right hand does not know what Paul is doing. Or something like that.