BishopAccountability.org

Decision to appoint Dublin Cardinal as Pope's stand-in is another bad choice

By Paddy Clancy
Irish Mirror
February 18, 2019

https://bit.ly/2X9z83y

Cardinal Kevin Joseph Farrell
Photo by Stefano Rellandin

Pope Francis waves from the steps of his Shepherd One plane during a farewell ceremony upon his departure at Dublin Airport in Dublin on August 26, 2018, at the conclusion of his visit to Ireland to attend the 2018 World Meeting of Families.
Photo by Paul FAITH

'Promoting a cleric to one of the most prominent positions in the Church when he refuses to listen to the laity is a mistake'

After the way the Catholic Church handled scandals and cover-ups of them, I should be beyond bewilderment by any of its plans.

But one of the latest developments has me totally gobsmacked.

At a time when the Church is supposedly attempting to improve its image it’s still capable of inflicting enormous harm on itself by some decisions.

I am not referring to Pope Francis’s defrocking last week of US former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick for sex abuse and soliciting sex in the confessional.

That’s one of the Vatican’s best decisions although, as usual with the Catholic Church, it followed a long period of cover-ups.

A different matter was the Pope’s announcement that Dublin-born Cardinal Kevin Farrell will be the new camerlengo, the prelate who runs the Vatican between the death or resignation of a pontiff and the election of a new one!

That decision really stunned me and, I suspect, many more both inside and outside the Church.

Cardinal Farrell was the guy behind the decision last year to ban former Irish President Mary McAleese from taking part in a conference to mark International Women’s Day in the Vatican.

Organisers moved to another venue in Rome to ensure McAleese and two other speakers banned by the Vatican could take part.

Although no official reason was given for the ban, there was widespread belief that Farrell took some exception to McAleese’s support for LGBT rights and the high-profile campaign of her gay son Justin during the 2015 same-sex marriage referendum.

In the 21st century, with gay people living open and prominent lives and same-sex marriages a growing part of accepted social fabric, refusal within the Church to at least listen to debate on the issue is a grave error.

Promoting a cleric to one of the most prominent positions in the Church when he refuses to listen to the laity is a mistake.

On that ground alone, many folk would oppose the promotion of Farrell to being effectively the Vatican CEO between Popes.

Many might also oppose the appointment against a background of the religious congregation or “team” from which Farrell rose to prominence within the Church.

He became a priest in the Legion of Christ founded in Mexico in 1941 by Marcial Maciel.

Maciel led the congregation of legionaries as its general director until made to step down in January 2005 as a result of grave sexual scandals.

Scandals!! Be assured the description comes nowhere close to describing the pervy antics of Maciel.

Church records show that behind his clerical collar Maciel was a nasty piece of work. He fathered six children by three women, and sexually abused many minors including nine men who formally registered charges against him with the Vatican in 1998.

In 2010, two years after his death at the age of 87, the Legion of Christ, after initially denying the series of allegations against its founder, finally acknowledged what it called Maciel’s reprehensible actions.

It said given the gravity of his faults he was not a model of Christian or priestly life.

I wouldn’t dream of suggesting that Farrell knew anything of the filthy deeds of the boss of the Legion.

There are those who would feel, however, that any member of a legion of priests led by a blackguard should be ruled out of holding high office in the Church.

I know God is forgiving, especially when the innocent are led by the contemptible.

But giving one of them, even on a temporary basis, the highest job in the Church is akin to giving a Kinahan gangster’s guilt-free relative a job in the Garda Commissioner’s office.

That’s why, combined with Farrell’s refusal to listen to what McAleese had to say, the Church was mistaken in giving him the special Vatican post.




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