UNITED STATES
The Open Tabernacle: Here Comes Everybody
Posted on July 10, 2016 by Betty Clermont
At least a score of cardinals have openly disagreed with Pope Francis in the past nine months. This is unheard of in recent history, not because churchmen don’t disagree with the pontiff, but because Princes of Church aren’t supposed to do it publicly.
Wilfried Napier is the cardinal archbishop of Durban, South Africa. “He also holds various offices in the Roman Curia, the Vatican bureaucracy, and is one of the African continent’s most prominent ecclesial figures … ‘Thank God I live in Africa, where we base our faith on the Scriptures & Church Teaching, & not every papal interview!’” he tweeted on July 3rd.
Reinhard Marx is the cardinal archbishop of Munich and a member of Pope Francis’ advisory Council of Cardinals. On June 23rd he stated that “we as Church cannot be against” civil same-sex marriage. The pope has declared that he is opposed to marriage equality dozens of times in the past decades.
George Pell is cardinal archbishop emeritus of Sydney and prefect of the Vatican Secretariat for the Economy. On April 12th, Archbishop Angelo Becciu, the number two official at the Secretariat of State, issued a letter suspending an external audit of Vatican finances by the global accountants, Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC). “Here, one must point out the obvious: it is hard to imagine the Secretariat of State suspending a contract worth millions, signed by the Prefect for the Economy, without the pope’s approval and after having informed him,” wrote Vatican reporter, Andrea Tornielli.
In response to Becciu’s letter, a statement from Pell’s office “noted with interest that the so-called ‘concerns’ about the PwC audit and contract were only raised when auditors began asking for certain financial information and were finding it difficult to get answers.”
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.