UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism
Jerry Slevin
Yes, this week the real Pope Francis did finally stand up, even if only in secret in meetings with the Cardinals who elected him two years ago mainly to save their hide. For two years, he has craftily fed into the media and diverse Catholic religious factions, who delusionally saw their own opportunities and dreams in Francis’ contradictory and/or ambiguous, but also intentionally quotable, remarks. What do we now know after two years? We now know much about Francis, including ten matters he strongly prefers:
1. A secretive absolute monarchy with rubber stamp Cardinals,
2. Barefoot and pregnant women without plastic surgery,
3. Exclusive Vatican control over criminal bishops and priests,
4. Pumping up the Catholic birth rate to “outbreed” Muslims,
5. Putting gay folks back in “the closet” with the many priests there,
6. Maximizing German tax subsidies from divorced Catholics,
7. Electing a right wing US president, preferably Jeb Bush,
8. Pleasing China and “low tax” billionaire Vatican donors,
9. Invading the Middle East to protect oil interests, and
10. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Sodano’s protege, as next pope.
Francis is accelerating the sinking of the Vatican Titanic. It is not too late, however, for Pope Francis yet to salvage the Vatican Titanic. As Pope Francis told the Spanish daily newspaper la Vanguardia, “At my age, I don’t have much to lose.” My own preference is for Pope Francis to exercise the papal equivalent of a “nuclear option” — he should declare unequivocally that no pope is or ever was personally infallible. There is no single statement or action that Francis could make or do to help save the Catholic Church more from the unaccountable “popolatry” that is destroying the Church than making that declaration ending permanently the myth of infallibility. And Francis must know it is true.
Church leaders seem fearful of any changes. Yet, many Catholics and others are finally pressing for permanent changes. They have by now seen Vatican misconduct up close and too often. They now also understand better that many of the Vatican’s frequently ambiguous, if not vague, basic biblical and historical sources supporting papal power have too often been overplayed, if not misused, in encyclicals and a Catechism, to justify selfishly supreme papal power .
Significantly, these permanent changes to a democratic Church structure, that the Catholic majority seeks in good conscience and good faith, differ ultimately from what many misguided clerics in the Vatican now want. As the “infallible Supreme Pontiff” for millions of Catholics, Pope Francis has the best papal opportunity in many years, if not centuries, to fix the broken Catholic Church. This may also be the final papal opportunity to clean up the “holy mess” before the collapse of the “house of cards” (Francis own phrase!).
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