UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism
Jerry Slevin
Poor Pope Francis! First, a Salesian priest, Cardinal Bertone, tries to lay his lavish apartment excesses on the pope. Now, Jesuit Fr. Thomas Reese, the world’s leading expert on Vatican organizational structure with a UC Berkeley Ph.D. in political science, piles on. Reese is the author of the highly regarded, “Inside the Vatican: The Politics and Organization of the Catholic Church” discussed at Amazon Link:
[Amazon]
Reese has now sharply and boldly criticized the pope’s inadequate efforts to reform the Vatican’s hierarchical structure. Please see Reese’s, “Pope Francis’ reform of the Roman Curia is moving too slowly” here,
[National Catholic Reporter]
Predictably, Jesuit Reese’s bias is towards a clerical structural reform, which will also fail in my view. For a relevant discussion of what Pope Francis needs to include in his vision of the Petrine ministry if he wants to save the Catholic Church. please see my remarks, “The Crisis Pope Francis Faces” here, [Christian Catholicism]
Jesuit educated Fr. Hans Kung, whom Pope Francis has honored recently with replies, etc., and whose former assistant, Cardinal Walter Kasper, reportedly is the pope’s theologian of choice, has complimented me on these reform remarks of mine. These remarks, unlike my usual ad hoc advocacy remarks which Hans Kung has never endorsed, are my considered and best effort to point Pope Francis to an efficacious path to required reforms.
Reese makes some perceptive and pertinent observations, including (in italics): “As Pope Francis approaches the second anniversary of his election as pope, progress on reforming the Vatican Curia is moving too slowly. It should be moving faster.” _ “The greatest progress has been made in – –
reforming the finances of the Vatican, which has mainly focused on where the money is, … ” _ “In theory, this is the easiest part of Vatican reform. Financial reform is neither rocket science nor theology; it is simply good management practices developed by businesses, governments, and nonprofits to provide transparency and accountability. It requires clear procedures, training of employees, and proper supervision.”
_ “Reforming the Roman Curia, the part of the Vatican that helps the pope in his Petrine ministry, is more difficult.”
_ “Reforming the Roman Curia requires a theological vision for the Petrine ministry, a sense of what the church needs today, and a practical understanding of how to organize people to implement it.”
_ “First, what is the theological vision of the Petrine ministry? Is the pope an infallible, absolute monarch in whom all wisdom resides or is he first among equals who acts collegially with the college of bishops?”
_ “That it took the council of cardinals two years to come up with this reshuffling of boxes on the organizational chart simply shows that they really don’t know what they are doing. It should have taken two months to develop this plan, not two years. At this pace, Pope Francis will be dead before real reform hits the Curia.” _ “A conspiracy theorist would say that getting the council of cardinals to focus on this reorganization was a way of distracting them from any real reform in the Curia. Let the cardinals talk about the councils. Keep them away from the congregations. ”
Meanwhile, Pope Francis must still be reeling from Salesian Bertone’s latest charade. Cardinal Tercisio Bertone, in effect, has ignobly pointed the finger of blame, for some of his main misdeeds, at his former longtime boss, ex-Pope Benedict, as well as at the former Vatican Bank directors, and even at Pope Francis, for whom he worked for seven months.
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