generalspeaking

Questioning Pope Francis

"With shame and repentance, we acknowledge as an ecclesiastical community that we were not where we should have been, that we did not act in a timely manner, realizing the magnitude and the gravity of the damage done to so many lives."
"We showed no care for the little ones; we abandoned them."
"If, in the past, the response was one of omission, today we want solidarity, in the deepest and most challenging sense, to become our way of forging present and future history."
"It is essential that we, as a Church, be able to acknowledge and condemn, with sorrow and shame, the atrocities perpetrated by consecrated persons, clerics, and all those entrusted with the mission of watching over and caring for those most vulnerable. Let us beg forgiveness for our own sins and the sins of others."
Pope Francis, letter to "the People of God"

The Pope's letter addressed the "heart-wrenching pain" of abuse victims in Pennsylvania after the report was released 20 August 2018

"Holy Father, I don’t know if you know Cardinal McCarrick, but if you ask the Congregation of Bishops, there is a dossier this thick about him. He corrupted generations of seminarians and priests, and Pope Benedict ordered him to withdraw to a life of prayer and penance."
“Now that the corruption has reached the very top of the church’s hierarchy, my conscience dictates that I reveal those truths regarding the heart-breaking case of the archbishop emeritus of Washington.”
Letter to the Pope from Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano

The Pope, the earthly messenger of god, has condemned in shame and sorrow and no uncertain words, the sacrilegious assault on children by men of the cloth, and in so doing has brought censure to the Roman Catholic Church. The revelations that seem never to stop, of the Church hierarchy being aware of the predation of priests on children and mature parishioners and simply carrying on as though nothing untoward had occurred left those abused and traumatized survivors of sexual abuse to fend on their own, while assigning the priests to similar duty elsewhere to continue their abuse.

The moral authority of Pope Francis might never be questioned; after all, he was a refreshing new personality as the leader of over one billion Catholics worldwide, the representation on Earth of God Almighty. And then Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, formerly papal ambassador to Washington, revealed in a letter that not only were senior churchmen aware that former cardinal Theodore McCarrick molested young men, but so too was the pope. And the pope before him, leading Benedict to remove him from active duty "putting him out to pasture", but refraining from calling police.

When Pope Francis assumed his duties he saw fit, it seems, to recall McCarrick from obscurity and bring him into his personal fold more latterly, as a close and esteemed adviser. From his retreat to a life of "prayer and penance", to a return to the high echelons of the Church. The National Catholic Reporter in 2014 described Archbishop McCarrick as enjoying a "renaissance" as a papal adviser. "The bad ones, they never die!", Pope Francis is said to have jocularly remarked.

According to Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, the Pope had full knowledge of the corrupt nature of McCarrick yet "covered for him to the bitter end". That end arrived when McCarrick was exposed only a few weeks earlier when Pope Francis had little alternative but to order McCarrick into the dark tower of "prayer and penance", in order "to save his image in the media", according to Vigano, who appears to have a personal vendetta against Pope Francis whom he seems to identify as a hypocrite of outstanding sanctimony.

"If you're nice to Francis, Francis is nice to you", remarked one unnamed resident of the Vatican of a Pope militant in defence of a Chilean bishop accused by victims of child abuse of covering up the actions of an abusing priest whom Francis was shamed into apologizing for his defence of the bishop. As a judge of character, the Pope's choice of nine cardinals appointed to his advisory team, seem in retrospect ill-advised, since three stand accused of failing to handle the crisis of abuse adequately; another charged with mismanaging finances.

Pope Francis speaks with the media onboard a plane during his flight back from a trip in Dublin, Ireland August 26, 2018. (Gregorio Borgia/Reuters)

"I hope Francis will do that [answer to Vigano's charges]. I hope Vigano is proved wrong. If not, the word "resignation" will be put about, thanks to Benedict XVI, there is now precedent. If Francis is tarnished and does not quit, it will be what a priest describes to me as "a virtual resignation": a Pope in office, but without authority. And this, surely, will shake my own faith, will it not?"
Tim Stanley, The Daily Telegraph

"I read the statement this morning, and I must tell you sincerely that, I must say this, to you and all those who are interested: Read the statement carefully and make your own judgment. I will not say a single word on this."
"[I believe in the] journalistic capacity to draw your own conclusions [as an] act of faith."
"When some time passes and you have drawn your conclusions, I may speak. But I would like your professional maturity to do the work for you. It will be good for you [members of the press]."
Pope Francis, Catholic News Agency

Labels: Catholic Church, Child Abuse, Pope Francis

posted by Pieface @ Thursday, August 30, 2018