Pope Francis on Children, Women and Wealth

By Jerry Slevin
The Christian Catholicism
December 14, 2013

http://christiancatholicism.com/pope-francis-on-children-women-and-wealth/

Pope Francis has recently had a rough time on key issues related to children, women and wealth. At a Roman street celibration of the Immaculate Conception, he observed: “…[T]he fragility of children may always move us …” Nice words, to be sure. Of course, the fragility of children may NOT always move us! It hasn’t moved Pope Francis very much in almost nine months. He can hardly avoid this by just making a carefully staged visit to a Rome childrens’ hospital as he just did.

Pope Francis even had a subordinate, Cardinal O’Malley, a few days after the Vatican’s recent stonewalling of the UN child protection commission, announce suddenly and vaguely a future advisory “pastoral papal abuse commission” that may not, according to O’Malley, even address bishop accountability for covering-up for predatory priests. Are they serious?

On the UN stonewalling, please see:

[eNews Park Forest]

Moreover, has Pope Francis ever criticized any bishop over child abuse, in Rome or when he was in Argentina? Indeed, as recently reported, the first compensation payments to Argentine priest abuse survivors were just made to victims of a priest convicted almost a decade ago, while Francis was the senior local Church leader, see:

[GlobalPost]

It may be that Pope Francis will try to ride out the priest abuses scandals by his deft public relations strategy as indicated here:

[Star Tribune]

Some of Francis’ bishops are not faring much better. The Minneapolis Archdiocese, with some high visibility scandals that involve a former head of the US bishops’ child protection committee, as well as a whistle blowing female ex-Chancellor and a former vicar general who is the brother of President Obama’s key advisor, keeps getting more negative news.

Archbishop Nienstedt has even been criticized by one of his own priests about a reported new “apology” even before Nienstedt got to deliver it at Sunday Mass. Innocent priests are beginning to speak out more loudly and frequently. Please see: http://www.startribune.com/local/235869291.html

When is Francis going to fix the abuse mess in his own organization that he actually can do something about instead of just preaching so much about problems beyond his control to fix?

Francis of Assisi was not pope. This Francis is. When will he show some leadership and courage on the biggest Church scandal since the Reformation? Unless and until he does, the rest are just pious platitudes apparently aimed at changing the subject.

Significantly, perhaps, the prior two popes so badly handled this outrageous and seemingly criminal papal cover-up operation that several national governments, pressed by outraged citizens, will likely fix it for Francis and his “New Curia”, while Francis and his New Curia try to figure out how to use the image of Jesus’s mother, Mary, to continue to subordinate Catholic women longer.

The old papal dodges won’t work any more. Crusades against contraception, abortion, women’s rights, gay rights, divorce, children’s rights, etc. have failed, like crusades earlier against Muslims, Jews, Cathars, Protestants, et al., earlier failed. In the instant media world, popes cannot hide any longer.

It is time for Pope Francis to stop preaching and to start acting. He cannot duck the scandal of abusive priests and unaccountable bishops any longer. Francis may now be beginning slowly to respond more to the child abuse crisis, as Cardinal O’Malley recently reported. Francis and O’Malley have an uneven record here, see: http://www.bishop-accountability.org/statements/2013_12_05_Doyle_O_Malley_Vatican_Commission.htm

And, as mentioned above, Pope Francis and his New Curia are also facing new scandals, such as in Minneapolis, involving media attractions that likely will just continue to mushroom, see: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/catholic-church/

But Francis as pope can really make a fresh start if he really wants to. The new abuse commission must be independent, focused and transparent; otherwise, it will just add to Catholics’ distrust. At a minimum, it must make bishops accountable.

It must also deal with the related problem of the growing priest shortage in many countries. Bishops often recruit and retain questionable priests due to staffing pressure. Increasing the potential priest pool is a must, whether by having married or women priests.

If Francis didn’t have enough of the abuse scandal on his plate, he is also facing failure to control Fr. Maciel’s abuse scandal ridden Legion of Christ, as reported by AP’s Rome reporter, Nicole Winfield. here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/13/legion-of-christ-reform_n_4439091.html?utm_hp_ref=religion

This bad news comes unfortunately at the same time as the marriage of one of Fr. Maciel’s star priests to the daughter of Pope Francis top female advisor and former US Ambassador to the Vatican under George Bush, Mary Anne Glendon, as reported also by AP’s Nicole Winfield here:

http://www.dailytribune.com/general-news/20131205/disgraced-priest-to-wed-pope-advisers-daughter

Speaking of women, Francis is not faring much better with his repeated evasions of where women fit into his view of Church. As expected some younger women are hesitant about Francis, as indicated here: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/12/13-3

And even older religious sisters, like the former head of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, are hesitant, as shown here: http://ncronline.org/blogs/where-i-stand/we-are-crossroads-women-church

Pope Francis is also facing an ongoing struggle on reconciling his staated “option for the poor” with the Vatican’s long time record of preferring mainly the “option for the rich”.

Among the many messes, ex-Pope Benedict and his constant companion, new Archbishop George Ganswein, left for Pope Francis is the corrupt Vatican financial structure. Cardinal Bertone hired a seemingly smooth talking Swiss banking lawyer, Rene Bruelhart, reportedly for approximately a half million dollars a year to work part time at the Vatican. Of course, “Italian style”, Bruelhart reportedly has as a local assistant, the son of a former key leader of the main Italian banking regulator.

The Moneyval report says, in effect, little more than the Vatican has on paper a new oversight structure that with some changes could work. But so far, apparently, Bruelhart hasn’t audited either the Vatican Bank or the Vatican’s own reportedly even larger financial holdings. Francis has reportedly retained a well connected US bank advisory firm tied to former international bank regulators, including former officials from the Reagan, Clinton, Bush and Obama administration, as well as to UK administrations.

Francis needs to continue to press his well paid advisors to clean up Vatican finances promptly. He then needs to sell the Vatican Bank and get out of the banking business, which will always tempt low paid clerics to manipulate. That will also always undercut Pope Francis’ preaching about the “option for the poor”.

As Jesus told the rich man: “Go sell what you have …” For more, see AP’s Rome reporter, Nicole Winfield’s further info at:

http://www.boston.com/news/education/2013/12/12/vatican-gets-mixed-report-card-from-evaluators/tc7VCIU987YTcO1wQpS9MO/story.html

An even bigger economic concern for Pope Francis should be where the Vatican and its message fits in the current world economic structure, as highlighted by Betty Clermont here:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/12/07/1260848/-Pope-Francis-Son-of-the-Church?detail=hide#

Betty Clermont had in her 2009 book entitled, “The Neo Catholics”, described in detail the troubling ties between the Catholic hierarchy and the neo-cons. It was positively noted by Jason Berry and others. You can see a brief book description at: http://amzn.com/0932863639

Will Pope Francis make the needed changes sought by millions of present and former Catholics, and many others as well. Let’s hope so !