UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism
Jerry Slevin
Ross Douthat, at least, an opinion writer for the New York Times (NYT), seems to be pulling his paper’s punches on the evasive papal sex abuse commission. He seems, along with his “papal promoter tag team ally”, the Boston Globe’s John Allen, to be following “low tax” billionaires’ right wing 2016 US election talking points in discussing the almost farcical commission of this “Teflon Pope”. The commission is being exposed steadily to be no more than a classic political stall tactic in the form of an extremely unfocused, open ended, conflicted, inefficient and understaffed “study commission”, that is being orchestrated apparently by disgraced Boston Cardinal Law’s former canon lawyer, Fr. Robert Oliver.
Douthat, who evidently overlooked the Cardinal Law connection, also struggles in his latest papal puff piece to credit right wing Opus Dei for the work of the popular Latino martyr, Oscar Romero, who is now a centerpiece of Francis’ right wing 2016 US election strategy. Douthat seems still to be reeling from his recent apology for speaking for a fee at an allegedly right wing anti-gay group’ s event, see here,
and here,
This spin in the NYT occurs just as seemingly sober (who can know for sure) Archbishop Cordileone, an ominous episcopal invitee to the pope’s Final Synod on the Family in less than eight months, provocatively steps up his homophobic crusade in the San Francisco home turf of the highest ranking elected woman in US history, practicing Catholic and pro-choice and pro-gay marriage Nancy Pelosi, see here,
Will Nancy Pelosi respond adequately and effectively? So far, she has apparently failed to do so.
SNAP and Catholicwhistleblowers (CW) have both just stepped up the pressure, perhaps in part out of concern that Fr. Oliver seems to have induced two prominent abuse survivors to help promote the new “go slow” papal sex abuse commission, including with a new CW documentary that may appear soon on the US PBS TV’s widely respected Front Line program, see here,
Meanwhile, Pope Francis is taking increasing heat from many quarters, including from an African child advocate over his “fallible” and insensitive advice on “spanking children with dignity”, here,
and from Holocaust victim activists following the release of Jesuit educated and former Wall Street lawyer, Gerald Posner’s explosive book, “God’s Bankers: A History of Money and Power at the Vatican” , (see at [Amazon] link). Posner’s new report, about the Vatican’s secret role in the theft of Holocaust victims’ assets, apparently contributed to the challenge to Pope Francis here,
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