ROME
Crux
By John L. Allen Jr.
Associate editor October 14, 2015
ROME – Wednesdays in Rome generally belong to the pope, because that’s when he holds his weekly General Audience in St. Peter’s Square, and during the second week of the 2015 Synod of Bishops, Francis certainly found a way to put his stamp on what Americans often refer to as “hump day.”
The pontiff delivered an unexpected mea culpa at the beginning of his weekly audience, which was largely dedicated to the synod’s theme of family life.
“The word of Jesus today is strong: ‘Woe to the world for scandals’,” Francis said, referring to the Gospel reading in the daily Mass for Wednesday.
“Jesus is a realist, and said, ‘It’s inevitable that scandals happen, but woe to the one who causes those scandals’,” Francis said. …
In fact, the pope’s mea culpa in many ways functions as a Rorschach test for whatever individual observers happen to feel is the most scandalous aspect of Catholicism, or the Vatican, or even the city of Rome, at the moment.
Many Italians heard an echo of a recent scandal at a Roman parish run by the Discalced Carmelites religious order, where more than 100 members parishioners sent a letter to the Vatican charging that an official of the order was engaging in sexual relations with “vulnerable adults” in a nearby park.
Others assumed the pope was referring, at least in part, to recent ferment around Monsignor Krzysztof Charamsa, a 43-year-old Polish priest and minor Vatican official who used the eve of the synod to publicly announce that he’s gay and in love with a partner from Spain to whom he’s engaged.
Charamsa was quickly relieved of his Vatican position, but he continues to comment on his situation and the Church’s broader treatment of gays and lesbians from his new home in Barcelona.
Still others wondered if the pope was talking about a recent melodrama that broke out inside the synod itself, focusing on a letter signed by roughly a dozen cardinals – the precise number remains unknown – raising objections about the process being used.
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