UNITED STATES
The Worthy Adversary
Posted by Joelle Casteix on March 9, 2014
If someone had told me two years ago that a man like Pope Francis would be elected in 2013, I would have been skeptical. After almost 10 years of Benedict—a man with the public persona of a porcupine and pastoral nature of a curmudgeon on a bad day—who could believe that a new pope could so quickly throw off the shackles of academia and theology and become a man of the people?
But Francis did just that. And by doing so, he has enlivened the faithful and captured the attention of an adoring world.
He inspired the Catholic faithful, who have yearned for an approachable man who understands the plight of the poor and the trials of the common man.
He’s utilized great PR, capitalizing on well-managed social media and engineering photo-ops that go viral instantly.
He’s attempted to tone down some of the divisive (and sometimes hateful rhetoric) of many bishops who solely focus on gay issues and abortion.
He’s even changed the tunes of many of the bishops and cardinals, who considered their offices a “no-limit credit card” for luxury goods, fine homes and travel. (Newark Bishop Myers didn’t get the memo, apparently).
But we have also learned something else: An institutional reformer will only go so far.
When it comes to the sex abuse crisis—the crisis that has become a thematic undercurrent behind every action and reaction within Vatican walls, the pope has become absorbed into the institutional church.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.