UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism
Jerry Slevin
* Yes, probably not. Pope Francis is surely a remarkable person and is clearly giving it his best in his 79th year. Yet by now he must know what the ex-Pope’s quitting last year signified. Popes now cannot save BOTH the Catholic Church and the Vatican for the reasons discussed below. Francis appears to have chosen mainly to protect the Catholic hierarchy, a losing proposition, and likely has as a result set the stage for an accelerated division into various Church factions. The Catholic Church may survive as a “catch all label” for splintered groups, but its hierarchy is playing out its final act from many indications.
* This future outcome may seem too pessimistic for a purported “unchangeable 2,000 year old institution”. But is it? For reasons discussed below, it is more likely than not.
* The Catholic Church has changed and really changed a lot over two millennia, often due to external pressures. For example, in the 19th Century, Pope Pius IX and his Vatican allies were urged by many, including other rulers, to modernize and reform his declining medieval Papal States kingdom. The pope, in effect, imprudently refused to do so, and instead concentrated on being “declared infallible” by many intimidated bishops. He then quickly militarily lost to Italian troops (including many Catholic troops) a large portion of Italy that popes for centuries had ruled as unaccountable absolute monarchs. So too, a corrupt and imprudent Vatican refused to take Martin Luther’s call for needed reforms sufficiently seriously and lost a major part of the European Catholic Church mainly as a consequence. The Vatican can, does and will err, claims of infallibility notwithstanding!
* Pope Francis is quite old and yet is working non-stop. He appears, unfortunately, to be surrounded by some men who seem to be oblivious to the Vatican’s precarious position. Francis faces at least three major scandals involving priest child abuse, sexually repressive teachings and officials’ financial corruption, while his hierarchy debate arcane matters like “graduality” and most of the media focus on counting papal “tweets”.
* The scandal that has changed everything for the previously “untouchable” Vatican is the child abuse scandal. The pope clearly has not done nearly enough here. And his efforts to change the sexually repressive teachings are facing strong resistance from conservative Cardinals as discussed below. He is almost out of time. While the pope has made a start, in Rome at least, on curtailing his hierarchy’s financial corruption, he still has a long way to go. In New York, for example, even prominent conservative Catholics are complaining about Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s very expensive renovation of his NY mansion as discussed below.
* Pope Francis’ response to date on the most sensational scandal, the abuse cover up, seems to be mostly more of the same half measures used by his failed predecessors. Bishops are still not required under Church rules generally to report child abuse claims to the police, for example, and accused clerics are investigated secretively by other clerics mainly. The respected and informed Financial Times recently has even labeled the Vatican as “criminally slow” on curtailing child abuse and has also viewed the initial Synod on the Family as having been a “victory for conservatives” ! {My emphasis}
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