CANADA
The Globe and Mail
September 2, 2018
By Michael W. Higgins
Michael W. Higgins is a distinguished professor of Catholic thought at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn.
One could be forgiven for thinking that the Roman Catholic Church, Peter’s barque, is not only in rough seas, but taking on water, with the imminent possibility of capsizing.
After all, the turmoil generated by the release of the grand jury report in Pennsylvania, the aftershocks of the Chile abuse cover-up, the scandal of former cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s immoral and allegedly illegal behaviour, and the festering pain and resentment in Catholic Ireland, were more than enough for the Roman pontiff to handle in a summer of unprecedented heat. And then a retired prelate with a grudge popped up.
Carlo Maria Vigano is no ordinary disgruntled Vatican careerist. He has credentials: administrative, diplomatic, consigliere to the major players in Vatican governance. But by releasing his Testimony, better yet screed or jeremiad, while the Pope, his ultimate superior, was abroad doing what a pope should be doing, he has shifted media attention away from Francis’s priorities and placed it directly on Francis himself.
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