"There are people, like me, who think how he [Pope Francis] has acted so far is not enough."
"There is no 'business as usual' possible right now. It cannot be like it was six months ago."
Thomas Bremer, theologian, University of Munster
"We keep pressing them on this issue [the Pope's interest in visiting Putin in Moscow]."
"I fear, however, that Putin cannot, or does not want to agree to our meeting at the moment."
"But how can you not try and do whatever you can to stop the atrocities?"
Pope Francis
Pope
Francis has condemned the barbarity toward Ukrainians in the invasion
and made allusions to Russia and President Vladimir Putin as the
aggressors, but has not mentioned them by name.Photo by Tiziana Fabi/AFP via Getty Images
While repeatedly referring to the conflict brought to Ukraine by Russia, speaking of the atrocities, of a "cruel and senseless" war, no mention has been made of the guilty party. Not once has Pope Francis spoken of Vladimir Putin as having launched the war that has killed thousands, destroyed towns and villages and parts of cities in Ukraine. While deploring the conflict and grieving for the dead, he has stepped delicately around the obvious; this is a conflict brought to bear on Ukraine by a ruthless dictator.
Puzzling and conspicuous avoidance of mentioning, much less condemning Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent a confused message from the Vatican. Pope Francis has gone so far as to criticize sanctions imposed on Russia and Russians by the outraged West, and he speaks contemptuously of spending on defensive weaponry. But the war and naming the responsible single element, a fascist-hounding dictator on a mission to destroy Ukraine as an independent country, not a word of the illogical message targeting a nascent democracy as a neo-Nazi state.
Pope Francis, on the other hand, did not shrink from supporting a Kremlin contention that the "barking of NATO at Russia's door" represents one of the most incendiary triggers responsible for inciting Putin's war. Within the church a debate has arisen pro and con Pope Francis's approach to the war. His obvious caution evinced on Russia's behalf stemming from his wish to continue ties with the Russian Orthodox Church. The Russian Orthodox Church which has committed itself fully in support of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the criminal activity of its troops there.
Gently chastising his Brother-in-Christ, Kiril, Pope Francis nonetheless will not condemn the Russian Orthodox Church's full-on support of what Moscow has done to mangle a neighbour's population and its future. Where is the moral authority of the most influential single church leader on the globe? Wars are "always unjust" he commented back in March, but he has not stepped toward the podium of righteousness in support of condemning a violent aggression foisted upon an innocent population.
His relations with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church versus the Russian Orthodox Church, both clearly at odds with the fundamentals of human rights and dignity accorded all to live their lives as they see fit, in a manner that most closely reflects their culture and their values, are tainted with the self-interest of churchly harmony; attempts to re-establish that condition now badly frayed. His obvious hesitation to point out the obvious from the lips of moral influence serves to reduce his stature.
He refused to commit to an agreement that under the circumstances of a nation hard pressed to defend itself from violence posed by an aggressive neighbour, the use of defensive weapons is a recognized right. When asked specifically, he was able to muster only a wan "I don't know", turning instead to decrying the manufacture and sale of weapons of destruction.His uncertainty under other, less pressing conditions would mark him as human. Under the current conditions of a violent war, he marks himself as a moral equivocator.
Pope Francis greets journalists aboard the papal plane during the flight
back to Rome at the end of his two-day apostolic visit to Malta,
Sunday, April 3, 2022. (Ciro Fusco /Pool photo via AP)
Pope Francis, St. John Paul II and retired Pope Benedict XVI are
pictured in a composite photo. (CNS/Paul Haring/Joe Rimkus Jr.)
"By virtue of the simple fact that this investigation had to be
conducted and this report had to be written, my heart hurts for all who
will be shocked, saddened, scandalized and angered by the revelations
contained therein."
Wilton Gregory, archbishop of Washington
Then-Msgr. Theodore McCarrick, 1966 photo (CNS)
"Pope John Paul II became ‘convinced of the truth’ of McCarrick’s denial."
"[There was no evidence] that McCarrick’s customary gift-giving and
donations impacted significant decisions made by the Holy See regarding
McCarrick during any period."
"[Three of the bishops] provided inaccurate and
incomplete information to the Holy See. Bishop Edward Hughes, who had
received several explicit accounts from McCarrick’s adult victims, wrote
that 'I have no direct, factual information concerning any moral
weakness shown by Archbishop McCarrick, either in the past or in the
present.There
are only two instances where I have known of any allegations against
the Archbishop.' Hughes wrote. 'Both allegations came from priests who
were guilty of their own moral lapses'."
"[Francis, before 2017, heard] only that there had been allegations and
rumors related to immoral conduct with adults and believed that the
allegations had been] reviewed and rejected by John Paul II."
Vatican report
"[The report is] impressive — the most significant document on the abuse crisis to
come from the Church."
"[The report’s greatest failure was giving
Francis a pass, under the premise that he hadn’t been properly informed
or knew only that there had been rumors.]"
"Plausible
deniability must end for popes and bishops.They are
responsible for reading the abuse files and for correcting the negligent
or complicit acts of their predecessors."
Anne
Barrett Doyle, co-director, abuse-tracking site
BishopAccountability.org
Pope John Paul II
Theodore McCarrick amassed powee\r and prestige in the Roman Catholic Church despite credible rumours, including written evidence about sexual misconduct on his part with seminarians, priests and teen boys, according to a recently released Vatican report. The report also reached the determination that Pope John Paul II had knowledge of the allegations surrounding the U.S. cardinal fully two decades before the man was finally defrocked.
Pope Francis authorized an internal investigation which gave life to the report, released two years later. The investigation and the resulting report represent the most comprehensive effort yet to provide transparency relating to major abuse in the Church, providing a play-by-pay of how church leaders simply disregarded clues on McCarrick's sexual misconduct; that "church men" were given credence over their victims, making every effort to ensure that discipline would be modest and private.
Information given to John Paul II of the then-bishop sharing a bed with young seminarians he had authority over was given in 1999, yet he chose to appoint McCarrick archbishop of Washington. Eventually he was named a cardinal. The then-pontiff honoured a letter written by McCarrick to the pope's personal secretary that he had never had sexual relations with anyone. Several U.S. bishops did their part to mislead the Vatican when they claimed that though McCarrick shared a bed with young men no sexual misconduct took place.
Theodore McCarrick was defrocked by Pope Francis in 2018
"This inaccurate information appears likely to have impacted the conclusions of John Paul II's advisers and, consequently, of John Paul II himself", concludes the report. Though ideologically at odds, the pope and the miscreant found common ground as Cold Warriors. "McCarrick successfully deceived the pope", George Weigel, a biographer of John Paul II weighed in.
While in Washington, McCarrick put on dinners for President George W. Bush, he presided over memorial services for Washington's elite, and he became a world-travelling church power broker and diplomat, building a high profile of service to the Church, while simultaneously undermining its very fundamental moral structures of decency, honesty and respect. It helped, considerably, that he became a church fundraiser.
Pope Benedict in his turn, following the death of John Paul II, received ample warning over McCarrick's behaviour, yet Pope Benedict thought not to apply formal penalties, informing McCarrick to maintain a somewhat lower profile. The Holy See did request "spontaneous" withdrawal as archbishop of Washington of McCarrick in 2006, once he reached the retirement age of 75.
Even so, McCarrick carried on his representation of the Church around the world, as a good will ambassador of the Holy See, unwilling as it might have been at this point for him to continue his little charade. It was only in 2018 that they rained on his parade, removing him from public ministry, and defrocking him a year later.
The report sketched a scenario of Pope Francis acting against McCarrick once clear evidence emerged, claiming that before 2017 Pope Francis had heard "only that there had been allegations and rumours related to immoral conduct with adults", leaving him with the impression that the allegations had been "reviewed and rejected by John Paul II".
Then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington and then-Archbishop
Donald W. Wuerl smile during a 2006 news conference after introducing
Wuerl as the new head of the Washington Archdiocese. (CNS/Paul Haring)
Pope Francis will attend the summit. Photograph: Luca Zennaro/EPA
"The holy people of God looks to us and expects from us not simple and predictable condemnations, but concrete and effective measures to be undertaken." "Hear the cry of the little ones who plead for justice." "May the Virgin Mary enlighten us as we seek to heal the grave wounds that the scandal of pedophilia has caused [in both children and believers]." Pope Francis,Vatican City
"You are the physicians of the soul and yet, with rare exceptions, you have been transformed into murderers of the soul." "What a terrible contradiction." Victim of predatory priests statement "The first thing they did was to treat me as a liar, turn their backs and tell me that I, and others, were enemies of the church." "This pattern exists not only in Chile. It exists all over the world, and this must end." Victim of predatory priests statement
Victims
of clergy abuse representing several countries from the Ending Clergy
Abuse (ECA) organization demonstrate in Rome on Friday. (Alberto Pizzoli/AFP/Getty Images)
"The competence of the state authorities should be respected. [Abuse] is also a crime in all civil jurisdictions." "[When allegations are received they should be investigated] with the help of experts." "The competence of the state authorities should be respected." "Reporting laws should be followed carefully. And a spirit of collaboration will benefit both the church and society in general." Archbishop Charles Sciciuna, Malta, Vatican sex crimes investigator
Close to two hundred bishops, cardinals and heads of religious orders in the Holy Catholic Church are attending a four-day meeting representing a gathering of the world's leading bishops for the purpose of discussing the Catholic Church's problem with clergy abusing parishioners, betraying the trust of children and their families, raping young believers, in effect blind-siding their respect by victimizing them and blemishing their futures. Women among the faithful, including nuns, trusting and vulnerable just as the children, exploited and raped.
A story as old and familiar as the church itself. Whispered and retold endlessly. The good priests and the bad, and how to tell them apart, how to know that a priest who had earned community respect and trust had corrupted that trust and the faith placed in him? Rumours spread and the community feels helpless. If complaints are laid, the complainant is made to feel guilty for smearing the church with unfounded claims. If the priest's predations are too obvious and frequent, he is merely moved elsewhere.
The church closes in to protect its own. A parish listens to a sermon about the evils of bearing false witness. There is shame to spare and furtive despair. On occasion the situation is turned into a bleak comedy of black humour and discreet warning whom to avoid, whose presence to never tolerate, but never, ever expose oneself to ridicule and shame. Until, finally, the chorus of plaintive calls for an end to the emotional and physical carnage could no longer be ignored.
Until, finally, public authorities dared to become involved and the justice that claims to be there for everyone decides to honour its claim. And the church is astonished and defiant that any outside authority might have the unmitigated gall to question its capacity to regulate itself, to hold to account any within who might bring infamy to an institution that does only good in the world, caring for the world community as a father would a child. A father ensnaring his children in incestuous relations.
Pope Francis issued a list of "reflection points" to be considered by the assembled on the first day of the summit meant to respond to sex abuse scandals around the world, by those within the Catholic Church. The conference, the first of its kind, places a spotlight on the Vatican. But the faithful are by now so weary and wary they give it short shrift. The church's decades-long effort to curb the abuse it could no longer ignore has wrought damage everywhere within its sacred confines, extending to the Pope himself.
Secure in the expectation that scandals will erupt in areas of the world where none have yet publicly surfaced, the Pope has urged bishops from every corner of the globe to examine the issue, to commit to its eradication, denials no longer feasible. Of 21 points Pope Francis assembled, the first speaks for drawing up "a practical handbook indicating the steps to be taken by authorities at key moments when a case emerges".
"A handbook like this was drawn up in Canada back in 1992. So after twenty-five years, this is not new. These seem to be platitudes", remarked Bernadette Howell, an abuse victim originally from Ireland, now resident in Canada. "It's too vague, What counts would be zero tolerance, written into Church law", commented Peter Isely, the head of survivors' group Ending Clergy Abuse.
Then, another suggestion from Pope Francis, that "priests and bishops guilty of sexual abuse of minors leave public ministry". A nostrum. A reaction and remedy that should logically have been in effect since the very beginning of public ministry. Instead of the shrug and the wink that was the church's ready response to all such instances of failure to act with honour and probity.
The Vatican has sought to downplay expectations over the four-day meeting, which begins on Thursday.
Photograph: Gerald Herbert/AP
"With all possible respect for the pastor of souls, instead of helping Africa's poor come to Europe, my duty in the government is to first think of the millions of Italian poor." "Am I wrong?" "[Undocumented immigrants represent a] tide of delinquents [to be sent packing]." "I am the least of the good Christians. But I don't think I deserve as much. I am reassured by the fact I receive on a daily basis the support of so many [Italian citizens] women and men of the church." Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini
"If there are Christians that feel an ease in saying no to reception, the church must ask itself a question." "This means we have spoken about Jesus -- performed ceremonies and done liturgies -- but we surely haven't created a mentality according to the gospel." Bishop Nunzio Galantino, secretary general, Italian Bishops' Conference
"[There is a need to] save our own humanity from vulgarity and barbarization [by saving lives], beginning with the most exposed, humiliated and trampled upon." Statement, Italian Bishops' Conference "It's really unprecedented that the official voices of the Catholic Church are so squarely opposed." "That hasn't happened before. The Catholic Church is the opposition, basically." Massimo Faggioli, Villanova University professor of Catholicism and European politics
Pope Francis waves to pilgrims gathered in St Peter's square during his Sunday Angelus prayer
There was a time when fascism swept Italy in the first quarter of the 20th Century. It was a nationalism supported by the Catholic Church. A Catholic Church that in its holiness deigned not to remonstrate with Benito Mussolini or with his collegial partnership with Nazi Germany. Mussolini may not have been a Nazi, but he certainly was a fascist. And the Catholic Church of the day made no overt effort to publicly distance itself from either Mussolini or to denounce Hitler's vicious anti-Semitism, nor to protest the deadly victimization of Jews.
In a new world order with a new situation where refugees are suddenly embraced and not spurned while their status as refugees is questionable as it has been observed that most are really economic migrants, their search is not for rescue from certain mass death in a genocidal plan to finally rid the world of Jews, political opponents, homosexuals, Roma, and those with physical and mental disabilities, but for opportunities to advance their economic futures as much as to escape oppressive governments and constant tribal conflicts.
There must compassion be directed without hesitation or stint. That the cost is great in the sense that there is a sacrifice of sovereignty and often public security, that there are few expectations the incoming hordes will shed their faith in a religion that holds them responsible for the imperative to jihad -- in missionary work for Islam, and incites them to decry other religions and reject any law but Sharia, bringing with them a culture inimical to integration and to equality among the genders is but a detail to the Vatican.
Its singular and separate state of comfortable isolation will be unchallenged by the influx of 'those in need' of succour. Italy's new stance on rejecting further absorption of migrants and haven-seekers has the opprobrium of parish priests who insist that anti-migrants "cannot call themselves Christian", that the "Italy First" movement is a rejection of Christian values.
In reality, welcoming incalculable hordes of Muslims in very fact is a rejection of Christian values, for the haven claimants do so, and as their numbers increase the fallout will soon be visible and visibly felt in their spurning and contempt for "Christian values".
The anti-immigrant sentiment building across Europe, saturated beyond a hellish nightmare by those claiming haven and drowning the continent in a heritage and culture bred of tribalism and Islamic sectarian violence and a rejection of humanistic values of equality and tolerance and pluralism has offended Pope Francis whose papacy speaks of the humanity and rights of migrants. The reverse appears to be of no concern to this shepherd of god's word, but that the developed world must be prepared to sacrifice its rights and humanity to that of those opposing them.
The move by Catholic countries aside from Italy; Poland and Austria, to no longer open their arms to alien migrants who share little in cultural commonality with their values has jolted the Church into action. Francis asks nations to "decisively and immediately" act in prevention of the "tragedy" of deaths at sea of migrants who decisively and resolutely and immoderately set out to place themselves in situations of potential lethal harm while seeking the level of social services and human welfare absent in their countries of birth.
The resolute action of the Western world in opposing those same conditions ushering in a new world order for themselves is too much to expect of those from Africa and the Middle East.
Italy has seen over 650,000 foreigners arrive at its shores since 2014, uninvited and unappreciated past the first wave of welcome. Viewing Italy's plight its neighbours had no wish to share the burden to process asylum claims. Germany and Austria, Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands opened their hearts and the borders and the swell of burgeoning migrants inevitably overwhelmed the welcome, in the process transforming the welcoming countries in the short view, but nothing as opposed to what will occur in the long run.
But they performed their Christian obligations in fine form.
Pope Francis (C) delivers his speech next to
Ecumenic Patriarch of the Orthodox Church Bartolomeo I (C-L), Egypt’s
Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros (Theodoros) II (C-R) and other religous
leaders after their meeting at the Pontifical Basilica of St Nicholas in
Bari, in the Apulia region in southern Italy, on July 7, 2018. Pope
Francis, during the five years of his papacy, has spoken about the
humanity and rights of migrants, cautioning about the anti-immigrant
sentiment taking hold in parts of the developed world.Alberto PIZZOLI /
AFP
"This source of organs is excluded from discussion with Chinese officials, because discussing the matter is labelled 'demonizing China' with 'fabricated evidence'." "My first encounter with forced organ harvesting in China happened in
2005 when I was approached by a patient of mine, who has been
hospitalized in my department for more than one year as top priority
candidate on the Israeli waiting list for heart transplantation, with
the amazing message that he was told by his medical insurance company to
travel to China in two weeks’ time as he was scheduled to undergo heart
transplantation on a specific date. When asked how come such an
operation can be scheduled ahead of time, the patient responded he did
not bother to inquire. The patient had indeed gone to China and
underwent the operation on the exact date as promised ahead of time.
This was the first time I have been made aware of the possibility to
undergo heart transplantation in China as no Israeli patient has ever
gone there for this operation before and the fact that one can get it on
a specific pre-scheduled date was a total surprise to me and got me
researching. What motivated me to take actions were not only the
chilling facts of forced organ harvesting but also the fact that the
Israeli patients going to China for organs were fully reimbursed by
their insurance companies, thereby providing a de-facto recognition of the Chinese transplant activities as being legal and ethical." "The 2008 Israeli Organ Transplant Law, which banned the reimbursement of
any organ transplant performed abroad if it has been performed against
local laws and if the prohibitions of the Law with regard to the trade
in organs were not met, has practically closed the gates of Israel for
outgoing transplant tourism in general and to China in particular.
Meanwhile, unique regulations set by the law which incentivize organ
donation after death, such as prioritizing candidates for
transplantation who have been long term registered donors during organ
allocation, have significantly increased organ donation rates in Israel,
from 7.8 to 11.4 donors per million." Dr. Jacob Lavee, cardiac surgeon, Director, Heart Transplantation Unit, Sheba Medical Center
"It is right to try to engage with China on these issues, but it is vital that we do so critically and with transparency, and not in a way that simply provides China with a propaganda victory." Lord David Alton, human rights advocate, Catholic British Parliamentarian
Falun Gong members stage a protest against China in Hong Kong.
Controversy surrounds the February 7/8 Vatican Summit on Organ Trafficking and Transplant Tourism. That controversy is the result of the invitation extended by Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, inviting Dr. Huang Jiefu, the official spokesman for the Chinese regime, to travel to the Vatican to address the summit. After Dr. Huang gave his presentation at the summit, Dr. Jacob Lavee insisted the WHO be permitted surprise inspections in China.
Among researchers studying the horrific issue of forced organ donations in China and the execution of prisoners of conscience to harvest their organs to be used in transplantation tourism, the appearance of a man whose reputation is held in great disrepute for his cooperation in organ harvesting represented a moral outrage. Dr. Huang is a leading transplant surgeon, the chairman of China's National Organ Donation and Transplantation Committee.
The U.S. House of Representatives last summer validated by resolution claims brought by researchers linking prisoners of conscience, mostly practitioners of the outlawed Falun Gong, executed to enable the harvesting of their organs. Falun Gong is a traditional Chinese discipline of the spirit with 70 to 100 million Chinese practitioners. Falun Gong is also practised throughout the world, where Chinese have emigrated from China to settle elsewhere. In 1999 the Chinese regime pronounced it illegal, and set about a plan to eliminate it, arresting its leaders.
The Vatican's "academic exercise and not a reprise of contentious political assertions", according to Bishop Sorondo, excluded any condemnation of Chinese institutional organ harvesting for transplant. Wendy Rogers, professor of clinical ethics and chair of the International Advisory Committee of the International Coalition to End Organ Pillaging in China, responded "To simply say that the evidence is 'political assertions' masks the real issue, avoids the truth, and provides support to those who have the strongest reasons to deny their crimes".
The crimes to which she alludes are those revealed by organ harvesting researchers which include forcing Uyghurs, Tibetans, house Christians and the huge population of Falun Gong prisoners to surrender their organs, harvested for transplant. Those researchers, included former Canadian member of Parliament, David Kilgour, Canadian human rights lawyer David Matas, and American investigative journalist Ethan Gutmann who had interviewed former interned Falun Gong practitioners, Chinese doctors and prison guards.
Patients queue at a hospital in China. More than 300,000 people require organ transplant operations every year.
Dr. Huang, in addressing the summit, claimed that China's 'legitimate source' of organ transplantation came from among voluntary civilian organ donors. Organ harvesting researchers had challenged the Pontifical Institute for providing China with a venue where it could perpetuate "unverified claims about reform of organ donations in China". Dr. Lavee pointed out that the inability to verify the source of organs means that reform could not be guaranteed to have taken place.
Dr. Huang had himself given evidence of transplant abuse ten years ago. In 2005 he had given a public demonstration of a complicated liver transplant in the province of Xinjiang. Previous to the surgery he called hospitals in Chongqing and Guangzhou to provide two additional, matching livers which were delivered within 24 hours of the call. According to experts, this type of speed is possible only if a captive, pre-blood-typed population is available to be killed on demand.
"I find it really hard to believe that Pope Francis would be too concerned about one gay guy and a feisty nun in a crowd of thousands." Bishop Gene Robinson
Pool -- Getty Images
The first openly gay Episcopal bishop in the United States will be present at a soiree to which countless guests were invited to greet Pope Francis at the White House. The decision to have transgender rights activists and a former gay bishop come along to the welcoming ceremony in Washington represents a diplomatic faux pas. Of course President Obama can invite anyone he cares to at a function taking place at the White House.
But that some delicacy of feeling was not entertained seems strange. The position of the Catholic Church on abortion, on gay marriage, on straight clergy is well enough known and it is immutable. Irrespective of the relaxed attitude of this Pope, he expresses his personal welcome to all and sundry, but he does not invite them to feel comfortable in the bosom of the Catholic Church.
They have always been regarded as outliers, and this will not change during his reign.
Tact is certainly absent with the engagement of the guest list.
The White House made no effort to consult with the Vatican over the guest list. A list that contains the names of 15,000 individuals. The Pope will, without doubt, take the issue and the controversy arising from it all in stride. As an issue, after all, it hasn't a very high rating, not with so many other critical occurrences taking the attention of this social activist Pope.
On the other hand, it does speak volumes of the tone-deaf attitude of the Obama administration in failing to observe the most basic of courtesies; to do nothing to deliberately embarrass the presence of an honoured guest.
In this photo taken on Nov. 30, provided by Vatican
newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, Pope Francis meets with refugee children
in Istanbul. AP Photo
"We feel anxiety and concern for the future, that the Islamophobic paranoia that has already been spread among Western public opinion is being used as a pretext for massive pressures, intimidation, discrimination, alienation, and actual attacks against our Muslim brothers and sisters living in the West." Mehmet Gormez, Turkish Minister of Religious Affairs, Istanbul
And thus did Pope Francis hear the riposte to his plea for peace among Muslims and Christians. Christians are being oppressed and slaughtered across the Muslim world. Muslims are being verbally slurred by those who suffer the consequences of not being Muslims, who are appalled at the violence being meted out to both nominal Muslims ('moderates') and non-Muslims alike.
In the spirit of moral equivalence so beloved of the bad actors of the world, one must equate Islamist physical violence unto death with the penchant of civilized people who deplore such violence and voice their condemnation of it in what the perpetrators take to be offensive verbiage. You murder mine and I will slander you; the former reprehensible act equal to the latter hurt feelings of censure.
How does a civil and civilized intelligence respond to such moral chicanery? Perhaps by using the more descriptive word of Islamofascism? Equally repugnant to those swift to decry the insensitivity of victims in portraying the world's self-declared foremost religion of peace by those who clearly do not understood the sacred mission of jihad which pious Muslims are meant to revere and commit to.
To jihadists, death equals martyrdom. Their own death, that is, while perpetrating atrocities taking the lives of other, innocent people who happen not to believe as they do. To non-Muslims death equals the cessation of life, of being and of loving, of worshipping a merciful god that does not command one to kill in obedience to his stricture to expand the population of the surrendered faithful.
Turks abhor Islamophobia, but the Turkish government incites its population toward anti-Semitism, a strange disconnect of the moral mind which decries one as a dread pathology, the other as a natural reaction. In Turkey, full religious liberty for any religion other than Islam is not permitted, as is the case in many if not most Islamic nations.
Pope Francis prays in Istanbul's Blue MosqueAFP PHOTO / OSSERVATORE ROMANO/HO
To the Pope, in honour of his high station and in reflection of his numerous faithful followers in Christ, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ministers generously offered a pact of a kind that they would commit to combat jihadism in their country, if the Pope promised to condemn "Islamophobia" in his. Pope Francis may very well do so, and mean it as well.
It is highly unlikely that Turkey will do anything to dissuade jihad, since as devout Muslims sliding well into fanatical Islamism, they verily do believe in and honour jihad.
"Well, there was the time somebody passed me a zucchetto with a note inside. It said 'Back off or else', and it was composed of letters cut and pasted from L'Osservatore Romano." "I blessed it and tossed it back. As for the Curia, let them complain. There are plenty of parishes in mission territory that need priests." "It hurts me when I see a priest or nun with the latest-model car. A car is necessary to do a lot of work but, please, choose a more humble one. If you like the fancy one, just think about how many children are dying of hunger in the world." "A person once asked me, in a provocative manner, if I approved of homosexuality. I replied with another question: 'Tell me: when God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?' We must always consider the person." "I believe in God, not in a Catholic God, there is no Catholic God, there is God and I believe in Jesus Christ, his incarnation. Jesus is my teacher and my pastor, but God, the Father, Abba, is the light and the Creator. This is my Being." Pope Francis
Pope Francis kissing the foot of a man as he performs the traditional “Washing of the feet". AFP/PHOTO
"I have even heard people say 'We are praying for him (Francis) to die as soon as possible'. That is wicked -- but such people think they are Christians." Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga
Half of the world's Catholics live in Latin America. And it emerged that thousands of Latin American priests, in response to the endemic poverty they saw around them, engaged in social activism, what was called 'Liberation Theology', in efforts to aid the poor, and in their attempts to change the social order to more closely reflect the Christian vision of equality. This kind of activism was seen through the dark lens of religious disorder by the Vatican and it was disallowed.
Pope John Paul informed bishops that violence and Marxism were anathema to the Church. And that was that. There were certainly hints that the current Pope was engaged in social activism and was himself involved in liberation theology, dedicated to social equality and opportunities to advance the fortunes of all. He had always himself avoided pomp, and he has brought his view of how the Church should disport itself into the Vatican, living modestly and behaving at all times with humility.
In the course of his ministrations and activities within the Church he has defied convention and decried the penchant of some of the priests within the Church to live lavishly, to separate themselves from the people, to consider themselves exceptionally entitled to goods and services because of the exalted role they imagine themselves to be performing in service to the Church and to Roman Catholicism. He is, in fact, quite an exception to the prevailing norm.
And he's done it again, for Easter, in going to a centre for the disabled and the elderly in Rome, where he knelt, washed, dried and kissed the feet of a dozen people some seated in wheelchairs, and some of them women; one a Muslim. To those who protested that he was insulting papal tradition, that the 'regulations' were that the ritual be performed on men only, in reflection of the 12 male apostles who served Christ, he responded: "Jesus made a gesture a job, the service of a slave, a servant. And he leaves this inheritance to us: we need to be servants to one another."
In this instance, he repeated what he had done a year ago, two weeks following his elevation as the first ever-elected Jesuit-trained pope, when he visited a juvenile detention centre and performed the Holy Thursday foot-washing ritual on women and Muslin inmates. He sees his mission as serving all people, with equal fervour and devotion. The extravagance the Vatican is known for does not impress him; he focuses on global issues like poverty.
He eschews the popemobile in favour of a 1984 Renault with over 300,000 kilometres to its tired credit. He lives not in the lavish papal quarters but in a modest apartment meant for visitors. Instead of the richly embroidered and costly garments worn by popes, he favours a simple white cassock. His needs are modest and he bristles with revulsion when he learns of bishops living in luxurious mansions, using parishioners' gifts to the church to fund their style of living.
This man, so close to the god he serves, is a man of the people. So odd it is that he was in fact, elevated to the position bringing him so close to the divine. Such a removal in and of itself, from tradition.
In this picture made available by the Vatican
newspaper L' Osservatore Romano, Pope Francis touches an amphora
containing holy oil during the mass
One doesn't think of a sermon coming from a Pope as symbolizing fire and brimstone. Yet how else to consider Pope Francis's sermon against corruption delivered on Monday in which he quoted a Biblical passage of the New Testament where Jesus is said to have claimed some sinners deserved to be weighted down and thrown into the sea. Jesus said that? Oh my, oh my. Pope Francis most certainly did. My, oh my.
Like the Christ figure, Pope Francis is a humble man of peerless devotion to the core tenets of his faith. He has embarked, like the son of God whom he worships on the emulation of the act of cleansing the moneylenders from the Temple. Ejecting vice, avarice and Mammon, to make full unobstructed room for the sacredness of the Omniscient Spirit and the injunction to be just and holy in one's treatment of others.
It's enough to make a non-believer weep in gratitude.
"Jesus says: It would be better for him if a millstone were put around his neck and he be thrown into the sea", quoted the Pope from the Gospel of St. Luke. People, he railed, who led "a double life", giving money to the Roman Catholic Church that they had stolen from the state or from others were undoubtedly sinners, deserving the wrathful punishment of just desserts.
People involved in corrupt acts were "white-washed tombs", he thundered; "they appear beautiful from the outside, but inside they are full of dead bones and putrefaction." Corruption produces a life that equates with "varnished putrefaction". Can't get much clearer in his purple-prose condemnation of hypocrisy and vice than that, can he?
The man who has chosen personally to bypass all vestiges of grandeur and sumptuous display in his role as Pope has chastised members of his own gatherings for their pride and their inability to be honest brokers. Those who, while professing goodness as priests but whose acts belie their profession have obviously caused him anguish and pain, and it is his intention, it seems, to remove them from authority.
His passion is to give succour to the needy, the impoverished, to welcome into the comfort of the church all those without hope. He represents an amazing contrast to his predecessors. He has emerged as a living, breathing embodiment of all that the writings of the church, quoting Jesus Christ, profess is important; no amount of cautious praise can fully capture the elemental goodness and decency of the man.
Speaking forthrightly of the deficits in human nature and the failures of the institution he represents, he is admirable in his passion. Can he possibly clean up the church he now heads? His lecture to the Church said it all:
"Poverty in the world is a scandal. In a world where there is so much wealth, so many resources to feed everyone, it is unfathomable that there are so many hungry children, that there are so many children without an education, so many poor persons. Poverty today is a cry. We all have to think if we can become a little poorer, all of us have to do this. How can I become a little poorer in order to be more like Jesus, who was the poor Teacher? First of all I want to tell you something, tell all you young persons: don't let yourselves be robbed of hope. Please, don't let it be stolen from you. The worldly spirit, wealth, the spirit of vanity, arrogance, and pride ... all these things steal hope. Where do I find hope? In the poor Jesus, Jesus who made himself poor for us. And you spoke of poverty. Poverty calls us to sow hope. ..."
L'Osservatore Romano / AP
Hercules cleaned the Aegean stables, as one of the immense tasks that challenged that super-human character of Greek fable. Pope Francis faces the Herculean task of clearing out the stables of the Vatican and the long reach of the holy Roman Catholic Church and its fallible priests.
In a backlash against the fraudulent piety of the established 14th Century church with the common knowledge that the clergy of the day would sell blessings (indulgences) for salvation to those who could afford the freight, and in contempt of the wealth that the Holy Roman Catholic Church had amassed in properties and goods, Lutheranism was born, eschewing the excess and the sacrilege of all that was holy and blessed.
There were two polarizing symbols of human excess at play in that drama. On the one hand, the seemingly inevitable persuasion of most human beings to benefit themselves by any means, taking advantage of the gullible and the desperate to further their opportunities to enrich themselves, and the polar opposite; the penchant and drive by some individuals who are pious by nature and self-sacrificing to the concept of an Almighty Spirit, prepared to sacrifice worldly goods for holiness.
On the evidence, Catholicism's new Pope Francis is a sterling example of the latter, just as was the German reformer Martin Luther, in his contempt for display and falsehood. And perhaps that says a great deal of the new pope's predecessors who accepted the pomp and ceremony and pompous display of wealth that surrounds the Holy See with its treasures and its ostentation that Pope Francis now sets aside.
And just as evidently, he is grossly out-numbered by the clergy who feel it incumbent upon them as representatives of the Holy Father and the Christ, to surround themselves with luxurious trappings emblematic of their status and the sublime nature of religious devotion. Limburg's Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst is most certainly one of the former, a man who appears to revel in excess.
View of Cologne Cathedral and Great St. Martin's Church from across the River Rhine.
And in response to the scandal that has erupted in Germany over Bishop Tebartz-van Elst's costly private apartments, unheeding of Pope Francis's calls for a "poor" church, the Vatican has announced that the Bishop of Limburg "could no longer exercise his episcopal ministry". Having failed to demonstrate a true mission to administer to the poor and the faithful by spending an amazing $44.4-million to present to the world his new diocese headquarters.
Limburg an der Lahn
Cathedral with the old Lahn bridge
When the disgraced bishop travelled to India, ostensibly to visit poor communities of the faithful there, questions erupted about the expense of his flight, and presumably his accommodations. And according to Robert Zollitsch, head of the German conference of bishops, the bills run up by the bishop for the work he has ordered has 'mystified' him. Mystification and faith go very well together.
For his part the bishop insists he doesn't lead a "grandiose lifestyle"; it simply appears that he does. Such huge expenses have a habit of persuading people that they are unwarranted for the cause at hand. After all, $44-million would go far in easing the life of hordes of the faithful in India, for a start. Or even the poor, living squalid but faithful lives in Germany...?
And in Germany, where a church tax compliments billions yearly to the German church, it can honestly be said that those who pay taxes are dumbstruck and angered that this is where the German church -- or at least one of its bishops -- chooses to use that windfall.
On top of which the authoritarian character of Bishop Tebartz-van Elst presence has antagonized over 4,000 people who signed an open letter of criticism.
"I write in the book that the Vatican's relations with the Hitler government after 1933, which were effectively determined by Eugenio Pacelli, then secretary of state (and later Pius XII), bore heavily the imprint of his time as papal representative in two ways. First was his conviction that a politically unstable and socially divided Germany was dangerous insofar as it exposed German society to the threat of Bolshevism and this, in turn, was a threat to the rest of Europe. Second, Pacelli knew that a politically and socially volatile situation threatened the autonomy of the Church in Germany. Still, as Nazi radicalism grew more aggressive and violent, Pacelli's diplomatic missives started to have the feel of much fiddling." Robert Ventresca, King's University College, London, Ontario: author, Soldier of Christ
So it seemed explicable that to avoid Bolshevism (Communism), Fascism was preferable to the Roman Catholic Church. Communism attempted to destroy religious devotion, and Fascism destroyed humanity, devaluing religion in the process.
The explanation that Pope PIus XII, whom both Pope Benedict and Pope John Paul set out to canonize was concerned at the potential of a threat to Europe when he decided not to publicly denounce the Third Reich for its monstrous assault on humanity, seems weak given that he became a witness to the moral debasement of the Holocaust where Europe was not only threatened and suffered, but European Jewry was abandoned and annihilated.
The latter hope was that Pope Francis would have included Pope Pius XII when the Vatican announced that John Paul II and John XXIII would be brought into the sainthood canon. Pope Francis appears to think that there is sufficient reason given the history of his Church during the Second World War, led by Pope Pius XII, to withhold that status from someone who might be considered unworthy of the honour.
Pope Pius feared placing Roman Catholics in the line of Nazi brutality should he exert the moral authority vested in him to explicitly bring the world's attention to the situation befalling the Jews of Europe. In his wisdom he chose the path of less resistance; non-confrontational diplomacy. Professor Ventresca set out on an initiative of his own, to search out the historical details through careful research to determine whether the ambivalence surrounding the avenue that Pius XII chose reflected a worthiness of sainthood.
In his newly-published book, Soldier of Christ, the pope and his diplomatic staff appeared reluctant to "take sides". They preferred to believe that Vatican impartiality might help engage toward a negotiation of the crisis building within Europe, with an aggressively militarized Germany. In the spring of 1939, high-ranking foreign diplomats urged Pius XII to state a firm moral argument, bypassing impartiality.
It seems the Pope was fixated on the threat posed by the volatile situation then brewing, to the autonomy of the Roman Catholic Church within Germany. Yet, where was his moral and spiritual conscience -- tucked away in a belfry beyond his reach perhaps -- when a Ukrainian bishop informed the Vatican that he knew as a fact that 200,000 Jews had already perished.
That knowledge appears to have solidified the neutrality policy, as though the Vatican and that Pope surrendered themselves to helplessness for fear of drawing attention to their own presumed existential fragility.
What the Pope preferred to do while preserving papal impartiality was to quietly authorize Catholic institutions to offer assistance to the growing numbers of Jews persecuted throughout Europe. While he was being pressed by his own Papal nuncios in Europe to condemn the Nazi attacks on oher countries, he decided against an unequivocal condemnation of war criminality. He did issue a telegram made public, warning those countries of imminent invasion, earning the wrath of Germany and Italy in so doing.
Pope Benedict XVI in 2998 acknowledged Pius XII's "heroic virtues". Those virtues referring strictly to the man's witness in word and deed to the Christian virtues. Despite that in word and deed those very virtues were deliberately set aside for fear of retribution falling upon the Roman Catholic Church should it condemn the barbaric slaughter of Jews, Gypsies, Homosexuals, the mentally and physically disabled, and political dissenters.
Files Pope Pius XII in 1954. He is often depicted today either as a Nazi sympathizer or a wartime saint.
Present sainthood to a man who failed the greater test of simple humanity?
"[Beaten] by this savage world, that doesn't give work, doesn't help, doesn't care if there are children in the world who are dying of hunger..." "[Christians, forego] vanity, arrogance and pride(because it is bad for us. It is the cancer of society and the enemy of Christ..." "Today is a day of tears. Such things go against the spirit of the world." Pope Francis
Pope Francis prays at the tomb of St Francis as part of his pastoral
visit in Assisi on October 4, 2013. Pope Francis visits Assisi for the
first time today to honour the saint whose name he adopted for a papacy
aimed at promoting peace and helping the poor, the Vatican said. The
pope will attend the feast of St Francis of Assisi (1182-1226) on that
day, praying at the tomb of a saint who is widely loved in Italy. AFP
PHOTO POOL / CROCCHIONI (Photo credit should read
CROCCHIONI/AFP/Getty
| Getty
This is precisely why this world of ours has been termed a vale of tears. The hundreds of desperate people anxious to migrate to a better place on Earth where their lives would be spared, their children's lives would hold promise, they might live in peace and security and see a better day dawn for themselves, and instead their cold, lifeless bodies are being dredged up from the ocean that claimed them when their boat burned and sank as they sought liberty and security.
Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio who would become the modest Pope Francis was a humble man of kindly disposition before being elevated to the Papacy and is no different now than he was then. His vows of chastity, poverty, godliness he urges in part upon others; to think of those who have little and to share the goods of the Earth with them. He is a pastoral socialist; as God himself has no need in nature to perpetuate himself or to acquire goods and wealth, nor then has he.
Self-abnegation is his forte, and he urges that his fellow faithful of the Cross within the Holy See do as he does, and therein lies the message of Christ, for this man. He is stricken with the tragedy of the shipwreck of migrants off the island of Lampedusa, declaring a day of national mourning within the Roman Catholic Church.
ASSISI, ITALY - OCTOBER 03: A Franciscan friar walks barefoot along the
road between the towns of Assisi and Santa Maria Degli Angeli prior to
Pope Francis' visit on October 3, 2013 in Italy. The residents of Assisi
have been busy all week preparing for the arrival of Pope Francis, the
first Bishop of Rome to take the name of Assisi's most famous son. Pope
Francis is due to venerate the tomb of San Francesco of Assisi at the
crypt of the Upper Basilica of Saint Francis to
And following in the tradition of the saint whose name he has taken for his own, his pilgrimage to Assisi was that of a supplicant, prostrating himself before the memory of one whom he emulates, thinking of himself no superior to a mendicant, begging to be able to fashion the world around him as did St.Francis who recognized his own humanity in the animals that surrounded him as a manifestation of the oneness of life, they no less worthy of recognition than any human.
Pope Francis caresses a person during his visit at the Serafico
Insitiute for disabled children, in Assisi, Italy, Friday, Oct. 4, 2013.
Pope Francis made a pilgrimage Friday to the hillside town of Assisi
and the tomb of his namesake, St. Francis, the 13th-century friar who
renounced a wealthy, dissolute lifestyle to embrace a life of poverty
and minister to the most destitute. St. Francis was famously told by God
to "repair my house." (AP Photo/Gian Matteo Crocchioni, Pool)
At the Serafico Institute, a local charitable institution treating seriously disabled children, Pope Francis lingered, and there he personally greeted each of the children gathered in the institutes's chapel. Kissing some of the over one hundred children, leaning close to hear a whispered greeting, and making the sign of the cross to bless the foreheads of those incapable of speech themselves.
He suffered himself to come unto the children.
Pope Francis blesses a child during his visit at the Serafico Insitiute
for disabled children, in Assisi, Italy, Friday, Oct. 4, 2013. Pope
Francis made a pilgrimage Friday to the hillside town of Assisi and the
tomb of his namesake, St. Francis, the 13th-century friar who renounced a
wealthy, dissolute lifestyle to embrace a life of poverty and minister
to the most destitute. St. Francis was famously told by God to "repair
my house." (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, Pool)
In the chamber where St.Francis is said to have made his declaration when he dedicated his life to living as he imagined Christ would have himself lived and might have wanted him to do so as well, Pope Francis spoke to a gathering of the poor, people who were, he observed, challenged "by this savage world, that doesn't give work, doesn't help, doesn't care if there are children in the world who are dying of hunger."
A child photographs Pope Francis during his meeting with poor people in
the Archbishop residence in Assisi, Italy, Friday, Oct. 4, 2013. The
Pope delivered his speech in the "Stanza della Spoliazione" the famous
room where St. Francis stripped off his rich clothes and gave them back
to his father and from then on lived a life of poverty dedicated to
Christ. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, pool)
Word of mouth leading to the eventual inscribing of such events for posterity aided St. Francis in attaining his stature as a giant of humanity and ombudsman for the poor and the downtrodden, a messenger with the voice of God speaking in modest syllables and parables of the living truth. His yearning successor has at his disposal an estimated one thousand journalists accredited for this visit, from around the Globe.
His word is their news scoop for the day.
ITALY-POPE-VISIT-ASSISI
Pope
Francis (2ndL) arrives in the St Francis Basilica as part of his
pastoral visit at Assisi on October 4, 2013. Pope Francis visits Assisi
for the first time today to honour the saint whose name he adopted for a
papacy aimed at promoting peace and helping the poor, the Vatican said.
The pope will attend the feast of St Francis of Assisi (1182-1226) on
that day, praying at the tomb of a saint who is widely loved in Italy.
AFP PHOTO POOL / FILIPPO MONTEFORTE (Photo credit should read FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP/Getty Images)
"Leaders of the Church have often been Narcissuses, gratified and sickeningly excited by their courtiers. The court [around the pope] is the leprosy of the papacy. "The court [around the pope] is the leprosy of the papacy." The Holy See's "Vatican-centric vision neglects the world that surrounds it. "I do not share this vision and will do everything to change it." Pope Francis
Sept.
30, 2013: In this picture provided by the Vatican newspaper
L'Osservatore Romano, Pope Francis stands with cardinals during a
consistory at the Vatican. (AP/L'OSSERVATORE ROMANO)
Stark denunciation. Pope Francis' view of the entitled behaviour of those with whom he is surrounded and whose values and priories and view of themselves and their position within the Church he objects to and plans to change. Clearly, this pope is different, far different from his predecessors. Does this reflect his Jesuit inheritance? The courtiers representing the finest the Church has to offer from the international community of the worshipping faithful do not meet his standards of faith and humanity.
He has appointed a special commission of eight cardinals, whose values within the Catholic Church he does trust. He trusts them to evaluate a situation that has its stark short-comings, and to recommend changes in the traditions that have served the Holy See for so long a period, to transform it into a community of elite faithful worthy of their status within the Church, and judged representative by Francis to serve their God meaningfully.
"They are not courtiers but wise people who are inspired by my same feelings. This is the start of a church with an organization that is not only vertical but also horizontal", said Pope Francis of those who will advise him on how he might reform the Vatican administration. Among their number is Sean O'Malley, archbishop of Boston, cardinals Oswald Gracias, archbishop of Mumbai, Laurent Monsegwo Pasinya, archbishop of Kinshasa, Reinhard Marx, archbishop of Munich & Freising.
Their presence is a reflection of the far-flung influence of the Church and recognition of where its growth and influence is the most robust. They will represent a kind of parallel cabinet expected to interact with the Vatican bureaucracy of long-standing, known as the Vatican Curia. What appears to have led to the abdication of former Pope Benedict was the revelation that within the Curia infighting and corruption was rife.
The opaque and suspect operation of the Vatican Bank, mysteriously sinister events linked to it, including inexplicable and unexplained death, remains a rankling sore that must also be healed. Pope Francis is prepared to lead the Vatican bank toward transparency and accountability. Founded in 1942, named the Institute for Works of Religion, its published earnings last year revealed publicly, were valued at $120-million; over four times more than in 2011.
Another first took place at the Vatican very recently, one that must surely have caused many within the Holy See to catch their breath in amazement, and perhaps tinged with wry regret among many. La Stampa's Vatican Insider reported that Pope Francis paid host to his close friend Rabbi Abraham Skorka from Argentina for several days at his Vatican residence:
"Never before in the history of Christian-Jewish relations have a Pope and a Rabbi celebrated their friendship by living in the Vatican together for several days, sharing all meals, including on two Jewish festivals and the Sabbath at which the Rabbi said prayers in Hebrew, and discussing what more they can do together to promote dialogue and peace in the world."
Of the third Pope back it was claimed, bucolic as he was typecast, that he was also a scholar and a gentleman. His successor was the scholar. Now the first Jesuit pope, learned as he would be through his Jesuitical tutelage, appears the ultimate gentleman. A modest man by all accounts, and truly given as none before him appeared to have been, to quietly assuming his duties with a spare elegance of show, shunning the elaborate trappings of tradition and ornamental elaboration in the simplicity of his urge to serve.
As Pope, he is held to sit in an elevated position above mere kings and queens, yet without a hint of artifice he exhibited the courtly gentleness of a bow to a queen of Jordan. Not even of his faith, allowing him the opportunity to display respect of all religions. Certain enough in his faith and its strength that gives him his purpose in life to render civil respect where in his opinion he feels it is warranted.
Pope Francis welcomes King of Jordan Abdullah II Ibn Hussein’s wife Rania at the Vatican. Photo: MAURIZIO BRAMBATTI /AFP
He has parted with tradition at every opportunity, eschewing the rich robes of his office, and assuming instead simple white garments he feels more suitable to a servant of god. Setting an example for others that surround him. And while he may fail in persuading them to follow his lead, and his lead may have the effect of discomfiting those who serve his office, he surely has impressed the laity.
He has pledged himself to the arduous and yet delicate task of bringing order and openness, kindly regard and clarity of purpose to the Vatican. And because of the corruption that has rotted its understory and because of the conflict in personalities and priorities that have riven its members, he is taking careful steps to restore to the precincts of the sacred city a propriety and dignity of depth, not facade.
The discovery of his predecessor Pope Benedict's trusted butler purloining papers meant only for the eyes of the pope and which revealed matters not open to other eyes appears to have brought about the resignation of the pope, an event that astonished the world. The long-term friendship of Pope Benedict with the man he elevated in 2006 to secretary of state alongside his own ascension to the post of Vicar of Christ protected Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.
The Cardinal was rumoured to have been involved in corrupt Vatican affairs, and there were trusted advisers who urged Pope Benedict XVI to discharge him from his duties as a way to restore trustworthiness to the affairs of the Vatican. Cardinal Joachim Meisner of Cologne revealed months ago that he had pleaded for the replacement of Cardinal Bertone, but was soundly and roundly refused. His contention, speaking on behalf of a group of Cardinals, that Cardinal Bertone was incapable of adequately discharging his duties was rebuffed.
"During the Williamson affair, I even once, on behalf of a number of cardinals, went to the Pope and said: "Holy Father, you have to dismiss Cardinal Bertone! He's in charge -- as would be the responsible minister in a secular government." He looked at me and said, 'Listen to me carefully! Bertone remains! Basta! Basta! Basta! (stop it!)" After that I never brought up the subject again."
So it is entirely conceivable that Cardinal Bertone was referring to Cardinal Meisner when he was dismissed from his position on Saturday by Pope Francis, when he mourned that he was surrounded by "crows and vipers" who had set out to maliciously undermine his authority. And who appeared to have done so quite successfully. Vatican observers now believe this to represent part of the effort to reform the Vatican Bank.
And so the Pope has introduced another saintly individual to the position now vacated however reluctantly and with very bad humour by Cardinal Bertone. The position going to Archbishop Pietro Parolin, currently Vatican nuncio in Venezuela. Who will doubtless refrain from comporting himself in a manner so as to reflect badly on the office he will serve. And unlike Cardinal Bertone it is doubtful that Archbishop Parolin will, under duress, suggest blame for misplaced judgement on his part be shared by the Pope.
This represents a general opinion site for its author. It also offers a space for the author to record her experiences and perceptions,both personal and public. This is rendered obvious by the content contained in the blog, but the space is here inviting me to write. And so I do.
