UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph
Pope Francis I: a humble man from the New World whose first challenge is to end the scandals
By Damian Thompson
Pope Francis I, the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, is a priest of holinesss and tremendous modesty of manner – a man who, until now, has taken the bus to work. His challenge is clear. He needs to learn from Benedict XVI’s greatest success – and his greatest failure. The success was the restoration of reverent, mystical worship to the centre of Catholic life, an achievement that has inspired a dynamic generation of young Catholics. The failure was Benedict’s inability to reform the corrupt structures of the Roman curia, which should be recognised as the rotten core of the abuse crisis, and which is likely to have loomed large as an issue in the conclave. The historic decision to choose a Pope from the New World will perhaps make that task easier.
Alas, cleaning the stables is a more urgent priority than building on Ratzinger’s magnificent liturgical renewal. In many parts of the world, Roman Catholicism has become almost synonymous with sexual abuse and its concealment. The crisis is as bad as it was in 2005, when Benedict was elected, although most of the crimes are now more distant historical events.
Pope Benedict was determined to “purify” the Church of its priestly abusers and their allies. But his civil service, the Vatican dicasteries, were lazy and secretive in their half-hearted pursuit of the truth. Senior clergy who should have been disciplined or prosecuted under John Paul II – including two world-famous cardinals, Mahony of America and Danneels of Belgium, and now our own O’Brien of Scotland – were only recently exposed. This week the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, its former leader Cardinal Mahony and an ex-priest, agreed to pay nearly $10 million to settle four child sex abuse cases brought against them. (The appalling details are here.) That such a scandal should still be unfolding as the cardinals met to elect Benedict’s successor, and over 20 years after cover-ups of clerical paedophilia came to light, gives us some idea of the moral crisis and public relations catastrophe inherited by the new pontiff.
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