Pope Francis Struggles to Escape Scandals of 2019

By Francis X. Rocca
Wall Street Journal
January 3, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/pope-francis-struggles-to-escape-scandals-of-2019-11578052800

ROME—Pope Francis ended 2019 in embarrassment when he angrily slapped the hand of a woman who had pulled on his own while he was greeting pilgrims on New Year’s Eve. He began 2020 with a public apology for losing his patience and setting a “bad example.”

It was a fitting coda to a year in which the pope addressed one scandal—the Catholic Church’s sex-abuse crisis—only to become embroiled in another, over the Vatican’s murky finances.

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