UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism
Jerry Slevin
US President Barack Obama follows polls, as all leaders must in a democratic world with a 24/7 media and internet, as well as billionaire media moguls who are not above “buying” political influence even from popes. As a parent, Obama also cherishes children and wants to see his expected successor, Hillary Clinton, continue his family supportive policies.
Obama has tried hard to avoid directly confronting media manufactured Pope Francis, but the pope has given Obama little choice but to begin to confront him directly to protect children, and women as well. Obama’s criminal law officials have confronted the pope indirectly, for example, on priest child pornographers like the one in Kansas City that Bishop Robert Finn harbored, and on priest sexual predators in Puerto Rico where Polish Archbishop Josef Wesolowski was papal ambassador and child abuser-in-chief. It appears Obama’s gloves may now be coming off over protecting children and women from a desperate Roman male theocracy on its last legs.
Indeed, Hillary Clinton and her Jesuit educated husband, Bill, can even be expected to press Obama to take on the pope so Hillary can avoid having to do so in her presidential election campaign. Hillary and Bill earned their positions by personal drive and effort, as compared to the Vatican’s clearly preferred Bush brothers, who are sons of a wealthy US President and grandsons of an investment banker US Senator. The Clintons will not be deterred by a “mere pope”.
The pope’s free US political ride on protecting sexual predators and their bishop accomplices is almost over. Please see my Hillary Clinton vs. Pope Francis in 2015 USA Politics, Electing Bishops & Jeb Bush Too , A Pope, A New US War, Jeb Bush Neocons & Big Oil and Finn’s Law: Police Must Now Handle Crimes Says Pope .
The Clinton’s longtime ally and Obama’s former Secretary of Defense and CIA Director, Leon Panetta, summarized as a charter member of the US bishops child protection board in 2004 the situation that still persists. Panetta reportedly said, “These dioceses are separate fiefdoms, … It’s an almost medieval organization we’re dealing with. Each bishop runs his own fiefdom. There is very little communication between those dioceses and bishops and indeed, very little communication between bishops and the Vatican. The basic culture that developed is, ‘We take care of our own, we really don’t want to open ourselves up to being questioned by others…’. The key here is going to be whether there is greater participation by the laity. I am just not sure that there’s enough pressure internally to really produce the changes that are necessary. I say that because in some of the interviews with the hierarchy there was clearly the sense that they were anxious to get this whole thing behind them – back to business as usual.”
Panetta was right. It was back to business as usual, regardless of who is pope. Even under Pope Francis, the laity, especially women, continue to be mostly irrelevant, other than for donations. Panetta helped Obama clean up child sexual abuse on US military bases. Hopefully, he will now for children’s sake step up and help Obama and Hillary clean up US religious institutions, including in the Catholic Church — a task he left basically undone over a decade ago.
The pope appears to be making his final desperate push of his brief papacy to install by the end of next year, before he likely retires, a right wing papal ally in the White House, seemingly Jeb Bush, even if lives of children and women worldwide may be needlessly hurt thereby. Obama will resist this. He knows that with no elective office in his future, he can now thwart the pope with less political risk than Hillary would face.
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