UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism
Jerry Slevin
* Catholics have come to expect papal pageantry and scripted settings from its papacy that still operates often in a medieval manner. But Pope Francis’ trip to the Philippines seems to have taken things to a darker side. First, there were the shocking revelations that young street children were being rounded up by Manila officials and held in horrible conditions to clear the streets for Pope Francis’ visit, as reported here:
* [Daily Mail]
* Now there is a significant short Reuters’ video of Manila’s police preventing peaceful Filipino protesters trying to be visible to the pope from doing so, as seen here:
* [Reuters]
* Of course,if Pope Francis really wants to understand what the street children are facing, he should view the PBS report about Fr. Shay Cullen. This prophetic priest had earlier in 2012 discussed his work, over several decades with thousands of sexually abused Filipino children, on USA PBS-TV’s Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, indicating that even then, that the Filipino Catholic hierarchy appeared more concerned with curtailing contraception then with curtailing child sex trafficking and abuse. It is inexplicable why Francis did not meet with Fr. Cullen, as appears to be the case. Fr, Cullen has testified as an expert about child sexual exploitation before a an international relations committee of the US Congress.. Please see Fr. Cullen with some of the street children here:
* [PBS]
* And if Francis wants to get a quick view of life for the many Manila poor, he might also watch the 2008 video showing some of the harsh conditions in the Tondo/Manila slum shown here:
* [YouTube]
* This seemingly carefully planned “image management” of Pope Francis’ visit to the Philippines is disturbing, especially in view of Francis’ recent remarks about limiting free speech reported here:
* [National Catholic Reporter]
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