March 2010 April 2010 May 2010 June 2010 July 2010
August 2010
September 2010 October 2010
November 2010
December 2010
January 2011
February 2011 March 2011 April 2011 May 2011 June 2011 July 2011 August 2011 September 2011 October 2011 November 2011 December 2011 January 2012 February 2012 March 2012 April 2012 May 2012 June 2012 July 2012 August 2012 September 2012 October 2012 November 2012 December 2012 January 2013 February 2013 March 2013 April 2013 May 2013 June 2013 July 2013 August 2013 September 2013 October 2013 November 2013 December 2013 January 2014 February 2014 March 2014 April 2014 May 2014 June 2014 July 2014 August 2014 September 2014 October 2014 November 2014 December 2014 January 2015 February 2015 March 2015 April 2015 May 2015 June 2015 July 2015 August 2015 September 2015 October 2015 November 2015 December 2015 January 2016 February 2016 March 2016 April 2016 May 2016 June 2016 July 2016 August 2016 September 2016 October 2016 November 2016 December 2016 January 2017 February 2017 March 2017 April 2017 May 2017 June 2017 July 2017 August 2017 September 2017 October 2017 November 2017 December 2017 January 2018 February 2018 March 2018 April 2018 May 2018 June 2018 July 2018 August 2018 September 2018 October 2018 November 2018 December 2018 January 2019 February 2019 March 2019 April 2019 May 2019 June 2019 July 2019 August 2019 September 2019 October 2019 November 2019 December 2019 January 2020 February 2020 March 2020 April 2020 May 2020 June 2020 July 2020 August 2020 September 2020 October 2020 November 2020 December 2020 January 2021 February 2021 March 2021 April 2021 May 2021 June 2021 July 2021 August 2021 September 2021 October 2021 November 2021 December 2021 January 2022 February 2022 March 2022 April 2022 May 2022 June 2022 July 2022 August 2022 September 2022 October 2022 November 2022 December 2022 January 2023 February 2023 March 2023 April 2023 May 2023 June 2023 July 2023 August 2023 September 2023 October 2023 November 2023 December 2023 January 2024 February 2024 March 2024
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30
31
News Every Day |

Rome’s great, savage divide to play out again tonight

1
Rome’s great, savage divide to play out again tonight

ROME – From the outside, it’s often assumed that the fundamental division in the Vatican runs between friends and foes of Pope Francis. That’s a fallacy for two reasons: 1) Tensions around Francis’s reforms generally are more nuanced than outright support or opposition, and 2) Most people in the Vatican don’t really care about such matters anyway.

I guarantee you that the guy pumping gas at the Vatican’s filling station, or the lady giving you your greens in the Vatican grocery store, aren’t coming to work thinking about the pope’s latest motu proprio (unless it involves their salaries or pensions.)

There is, however, a genuine laceration in the Vatican just like all of Rome, unyielding and savage, where “nuance” never applies. Especially for those who hail from Rome itself, it grips everyone from cardinals to street sweepers, so totalizing in its embrace that it’s passed down through the generations, and where hate for the enemy is almost as strong as love for one’s own.

I’m talking about the chasm between Laziali and Romanisti, meaning fans of the two great professional soccer teams in the city of Rome. (In the interests of full disclosure, the Allens are Romanisti. I’m writing this column beneath my team flag that reads, “La Roma non si discute, si ama, which means, “You don’t discuss Roma, you love her.”)

To understand how bitter the rivalry is, we should begin by noting that soccer – calcio, to use the Italian word – is a civil religion here. America is sports-crazy too, but our passions are divided among football, basketball, baseball, hockey, mixed martial arts, stock car racing, etc. In Italy there’s really only calcio, and it’s all-consuming.

When it comes to the city of Rome, it’s also useful to remember that its founding myth pivots on a fratricide, Romulus killing Remus. Over the centuries, brother v. brother always has been a defining streak of Roman life. Nowhere is that more evident than during the pair of occasions each year when the two brother squads of Rome face one another on the field of battle.

Tonight at 6:00 p.m. Rome time brings the latest Roma-Lazio “derby,” what the Italians call a soccer game between cross-town rivals. It’s a dead-lock certainty that a far greater share of Vatican personnel will be glued to their television sets for those two hours than, say, those who followed any portion of the live feed of the pope’s recent outing to Hungary and Slovakia. A fair number probably will be late to work Monday, since they’ll have trekked out to Rome’s Olympic Stadium to take part in an annual ritual that’s as invested with sacred meaning as any Catholic liturgy.

Both teams come into tonight’s game in accustomed positions, looking competitive but not elite. Roma started strong this year under its new coach, the legendary Jose Mourinho, winning its first six games handily, but has struggled over the last two. Lazio, meanwhile, has either tied or lost its last four games after thumping bottom dweller Spezia 6-1 in late August.

Indeed, the fact that neither Roma nor Lazio are routinely among the big winners in Italian soccer is another factor in making their rivalry so bitter. Lazio last won the scudetto, the Italian championship, in 2000, Roma in 2001, so both are twenty years removed from glory. The Turin-based Juventus has more hardware by itself than Roma and Lazio combined, so the fact they don’t win much else makes beating each other, by default, the litmus test of a successful year.

When an outsider arrives in the Vatican, no matter what office they hold, they face a basic choice: Stay out of the Roma/Lazio divide, or become a true local and take sides. (In that regard, Portuguese Cardinal José Saraiva Martins has always been something of a living miracle. When he got to Rome in the late 1980s he became a Lazio fan, but he’s such a nice guy even diehard Romanisti adopted him too.)

Pope Francis famously is a fan of San Lorenzo in his native Argentina, and he’s never stated any rooting interesting in the rivalry that defines his adopted city. That hasn’t stopped Romans from attempting to claim him, however. Laziali have long believed Francis is one of them, based on the fact that when he was a young Jesuit philosophy teacher in Santa Fè, Argentina, in the 1960s, his housekeeper was the sister of the wife of the grandfather of Lucas Martin Castroman, an Argentine soccer player who scored a celebrated goal for Lazio in the 2001 derby at the very last minute to deny Roma victory.

Yes, you read that right – Lazio’s claim on the pope rests on a housekeeper he knew briefly fifty years ago being the sister of the wife of somebody’s grandfather. Such is the logic of a rivalry.

In the abstract, you might expect Francis to incline to Roma, given the historic sociology of the two teams. Lazio was founded in 1900 as an homage to Rome’s imperial past, adopting the eagle as its symbol and the regal colors of white and sky blue, and it appealed to the high middle class and social elites. Roma was launched in 1927 using the popular city colors of red and gold, it adopted the wolf of the Romulus and Remus myth as its mascot, and it appealed to the lower classes and the streets. Politically, Lazio was associated with the establishment, Roma with the radicals, populists and communists, i.e., the rabble.

Today, such distinctions largely have vanished, so you’ll find Roma fans selling high-end real estate and Lazio fans peddling smokes – I can personally testify to both, from our own neighborhood. Yet the muscle memory of those old antagonisms endures, adding yet more intensity to the rivalry.

In that sense, the Roma/Lazio contest actually may be ideally suited for the Vatican, since the antagonists are fighting in part over things neither side has ever experienced, just like today’s generation of 30-year-old clerics splitting hairs over Vatican II.

So, if you need something from the Vatican right now, here’s my advice.

Find out if the official you’re dealing with is a Romanista or a Laziale, then check the scores for Italian soccer before you go to bed. If your contact’s team loses, stay away for a while, because he or she will be trapped existentially in the pit of despair from “Princess Bride” and in no mood to be helpful.

If the right team wins, on the other hand, strike now, because I promise you won’t find him or her in a more benevolent humor all year.

Forza Roma!

Follow John Allen on Twitter: @JohnLAllenJr

Архангельск

Архангельск вышел в финал премии "Туристические города"

I was diagnosed with cancer aged 39… you are never too rich, too famous or too young, says Dr Philippa Kaye

The 10 Intense New Action Movies on Netflix That Left Me on the Edge of My Seat!

Top 5 Websites to Watch FREE Movies - TV Shows (No Sign up!)

Top 10 Love Affair Movies of the 2000s and 2010s

Ria.city






Read also

A woman aimed to visit 80 countries by 50 after a near-death experience. She did it — and then some.

888 agrees to the sale of certain United States B2C assets to Hard Rock Digital

‘Where’s the legislation to protect Christians?’ Gregg Abbott’s executive order targeting antisemitism enrages far-right base

News, articles, comments, with a minute-by-minute update, now on Today24.pro

News Every Day

I was diagnosed with cancer aged 39… you are never too rich, too famous or too young, says Dr Philippa Kaye

Today24.pro — latest news 24/7. You can add your news instantly now — here


News Every Day

The 10 Intense New Action Movies on Netflix That Left Me on the Edge of My Seat!



Sports today


Новости тенниса
ATP

Хачанов: хочу вернуться в топ-10 ATP



Спорт в России и мире
Москва

Федерация бокса России на ВДНХ



All sports news today





Sports in Russia today

Москва

Федерация бокса России на ВДНХ


Новости России

Game News

Для Wuthering Waves проходит предрегистрация в App Store и Google Play


Russian.city


Москва

В метрах от спада: есть ли риск кризиса на российском рынке жилья


Губернаторы России
Арцах

Зампред Мосгордумы Андрей Медведев призвал привлечь к ответственности азербайджанского миллиардера, владельца «Крокуса» Араза Агаларова


Лавров заявил, что сфер сотрудничества России и Запада практически не осталось

СК возбудил уголовное дело из-за впавшего в кому россиянина в Таиланде

Московская область - Изготовление металлических навесов

Он обещал — вернулся: сможет ли Минаков перебить Томпсона


Олег Митяев отменил концерты в Тюмени и Тобольске

Ольга Бузова стала человеком-невидимкой на ТВ-3 в новом сезоне легендарного шоу о звёздах

Розенбаум исполнил «Вечернюю застольную» в память о жертвах теракта в «Крокусе»

Джиган раскрыл свой вес и описал причину похудения словами «надоело быть жирным»


Рыбакина о том, что не играла в Индиан-Уэллс из-за болезни: «К сожалению, восстановление заняло много времени»

Янник Синнер поделился впечатлениями от общения с игроками сборной Италии по футболу

Виктория Азаренко вышла в полуфинал турнира WTA-1000 в Майами

«Бомж» Дарья передает всем привет»: Касаткина ответила на слова Винер



«Радио Зенит» – информационный партнер форума «Мы вместе. Спорт»

Рынок вторичной недвижимости Крыма: цены растут, а спрос?

Шапки женские вязаные на Wildberries, 2024 — новый цвет от 392 руб. (модель 466)

Топливному компромиссу между Украиной и Азербайджаном пришел конец?


Shot: рейс Turkish Airlines вернулся во Внуково из-за криков и танцев пассажира

Консультации, Составление Договоров, Присутствие Продюсера при заключении договоров и переговорах. Лекции. Переговоры. Встречи и Обсуждения.

Актриса Яна Поплавская станет одним из почетных гостей Национальной премии «СВОИМ» в Нижнем Новгороде

Фильм о пришельцах снятый на деньги мафии


В ГК «Расцветай» рассказали, какие квартиры будут пользоваться спросом

«Металлург» обыграл «Спартак» и находится в одной победе от полуфинала Кубка Гагарина

Счет шел на секунда: как врачи спасали жизни пострадавших в теракте в «Крокусе»

«Наука в школе: реальность или иллюзия»: в Технопарке Физтех-лицея им. П. Л. Капицы эксперты выяснили, могут ли школьники заниматься наукой



Путин в России и мире






Персональные новости Russian.city
Анна Нетребко

Муж Нетребко Эйвазов перенес концерт на 40 дней из-за теракта в Crocus City Hall



News Every Day

The 10 Intense New Action Movies on Netflix That Left Me on the Edge of My Seat!




Friends of Today24

Музыкальные новости

Персональные новости