UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism
Jerry Slevin
Dear President Obama:
With respect to next month’s scheduled Vatican meeting and the upcoming US Senate elections, please note that Pope Francis, after almost a year as pope, will hold his much anticipated meeting this week with his select council of eight cardinals, with Boston’s Cardinal O’Malley as the US representative. The meeting reportedly will focus on Francis’ top priorities: (1) consolidating his worldwide control over his childless male hierarchical subordinates, and (2) reviewing his efforts to clean up sordid Vatican finances in order, among other goals, to minimize Vatican cardinals’ potential criminal liability exposure for financial misdeeds.
At the same time, Francis and his media echo chamber are increasingly trying to claim counterfactually and inconsistently, apparently to avoid potential legal liability for covering up for priest child abusers, that popes do not control local Church officials. Other Vatican challenges, including addressing pressing issues affecting child protection, responsible family planning and respecting gay persons’ rights, continue mainly simmering on Francis’ back burner, if not already precluded by his often inconsistent utterances.
Cardinal Bertone, former Vatican Secretary of State, has reportedly recently stated that the ex-Pope had first decided to resign in mid-2012, which coincides with the International Criminal Court’s announcement that it would, at least preliminarily, defer pursuing a criminal investigation of the ex-Pope. That meant there was little need for the ex-Pope to remain to oversee his legal defense. Avoiding potential criminal liability appears to be the Vatican’s 11th Commandment and the Vatican’s top priority.
Please also note, President Obama, in anticipation of your March 27 meeting with Pope Francis and for the sake of defenseless innocents and your desired legacy, my concerns as a fellow Harvard Law School graduate and as a Catholic grandparent about the unfolding strategy of Pope Francis and his billionaire backers. Francis apparently is seeking, in effect, to exempt the Vatican both from enforcement of international laws and any independent judicial oversight, especially for child abuse related crimes. Many of these laws apply to and are enforcible against even US Presidents. Stalin was right that the pope has no divisions, but he has legions of hard nosed lawyers, creative publicists, opportunistic apologists and self-interested donors.
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