VATICAN CITY
dotCommonweal
Letter from Rome
Robert Mickens October 1, 2014
VATICAN CITY – As I was saying before I was interrupted: Pope Francis is facing resistance to the changes he’s trying to bring about inside the church. This opposition comes from the ranks of seminarians and younger priests, as well as a number of bishops.
“The resistance is coming from those that don’t want to change,” says professor Andrea Riccardi, founder of the Sant’Egidio Community here in Rome. In a recent interview he pointed out that many regular folks all over the world were still enjoying a “honeymoon” with Pope Francis. And he predicted that it would not wane quickly because it’s “much more substantial” than a mere “media phenomenon.”
Precisely because there is substance to changes the seventy-seven-year-old pope is trying to make, especially in his efforts to root out clericalism, resistance to him has grown. It is not, however, good form for priests or bishops to go around bashing the bishop of Rome. (Nor is it particularly good for one’s clerical career.) So they must select another target. That is exactly what happened during Benedict XVI’s pontificate, when the former pope’s enemies chose his secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone as their surrogate punching bag.
Those hostile to the way Pope Francis is governing the Vatican and the universal church have placed the bull’s eye on the backs of several of his close advisers. For example, in the first weeks of Francis’s papacy, some critics tried to dig up dirt on some of the pope’s aides. But this shrewd and self-composed pope would not cave in to blackmail.
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.