Will Francis’ Secretive Synod Sideshow “play” in Obama’s Puerto Rico?

By Jerry Slevin
Christian Catholicism
October 3, 2014

http://christiancatholicism.com/will-francis-secretive-synod-sideshow-play-in-obamas-puerto-rico/

Pope Francis seems, with his diversionary Family Synod strategy, to be pressing very hard to change the subject and distance himself from the escalating fallout from the priest child rape scandal. Francis has for over 18 months mainly avoided addressing this scandal directly, effectively and transparently, even though the scandal is the most serious Vatican crisis since 1789. The French Revolution then began the challenges to absolute monarchies like the Vatican, the world’s oldest continuous unaccountable monarchy. The revolutionary fever has now crossed the Tiber to Vatican Hill. Increasingly, Catholics are demanding accountability of its leaders, as had existed for centuries in the Church that the disciples of Jesus, including some women, left behind.

The latest major abuse scandal fallout may soon be emitted from Puerto Rico (PR), a territory of the USA, where the papal apostolic delegate to PR, Archibishop Wesolowski, had been the senior Vatican official for five years. He fled secretly last year to the Vatican’s purported legal immunity protection, as potential investigation targets Cardinals Law and Pell seemingly also have done. Indeed, Pell appears still to be in the cross hairs of the important commission that is investigating institutional child sexual abuse in Australia and that is also relentlessly moving in on the Vatican’s complicit role there, it appears.

Significantly, President Obama’s Federal prosecutors in PR recently have stepped up considerably priest child abuse and related criminal investigations. Given Wesolowski’s reported computer stash of 100,000+ child porn images, and his reported sexual obsession with young boys, US investigators may soon identify some Puerto Rican boys, all US citizens, as being among his many child victims. Obama’s Federal prosecutors are also involved in Minneapolis priest child porn investigations relating to allegations previously reviewed insufficiently by the Vatican and by local vicar general, Fr. Kevin McDonough, close brother of Denis McDonough, Obama’s Chief of Staff.

US Federal prosecutors treat child porn as a very serious criminal matter. Also, the US has an extradition treaty with Italy, but not with the Vatican. This may help explain Weslowski’s reportedly being moved to a Vatican apartment, since he had earlier been spotted walking freely in Rome in Italian territory.

Pope Francis’ drawn out two step Family Synod distraction appears to stem from an overall strategy seemingly crafted by ex-Pope Benedict XVI, Joseph Ratzinger, and Cardinal Sodano after they both dodged a “potentially fatal” legal bullet in mid-2012 . The International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor then deferred ” … at this time …” pursuit of “crimes against humanity charges” relating to their alleged role in a worldwide cover-up of the rape of children by Catholic priests. For over six months thereafter, the ex-Pope evidently fashioned his future strategy as the continuing “Shadow Pope” before publicly announcing his resignation early last year. It appears increasingly that Cardinal Bergoglio accepted, possibly with some personal input, this strategy as a pre-condition to his papal election as Pope Francis. The Family Synods appear to be a key element of the Benedict/Francis/Sodano strategy to save the papal monarchy by distracting for two and a half years from the unprecedented priest child rape scandal.

The overall papal strategy over the last two years appears from many indications to include the following:

(1) Replacing the stern and rigid public image and doctrinaire decisional style of Benedict with the softer and gentler image and intentionally ambiguous platitudes of Francis, amplified by a Vatican media operation greatly enhanced both internally and externally by powerful and wealthy Vatican allies that have considerable influence over various media outlets;

(2) Tightening papal control over Church finances under a facade of minority “lay oversight” from carefully selected and potentially pliable papal allies mainly from “big finance”, “big oil” and major media sectors;

(3) Boosting papal “mystical power and infallible doctrines” by commandeering the Vatican’s saint making process for the benefit of modern popes, including the failed anti-contraception advocate, Paul VI, now to be beatified seemingly mainly by a Francis “fiat” in a couple of weeks at the new Synod;

(4) Protecting, as the highest priority, Catholic cardinals and bishops from prosecution, especially related to allegations of child abuse and/or related cover-ups and of financial corruption, (A) by easing out, quietly and with minimal recriminations, controversial hierarchs by comfortable retirements, demotions or transfers, and (B) by trying to co-opt completely all independent government investigations of hierarchs with Vatican controlled and secretive proceedings that also protect against disclosures about other hierarchs that may be implicated (Wesolowski, for example, served in numerous countries over more than three decades and may have in his computer files child porn related links to other pedophiles in the worldwide hierarchy — who knows, but why did Francis have him smuggled, in effect, back to the Vatican?);

(5) Strengthening alliances with powerful political and financial interests worldwide, including with right wing “low tax” elites in the USA who appear to need Vatican political help in five weeks to elect a right wing US Senate and thereby preserve a “business friendly” US Supreme Court majority indefinitely; hence, the Vatican directed, pre-November US bishops’ election “crusades” against gay marriage and Obama’s policies on contraception insurance, immigration law enforcement and non- deployment of more US troops in the Middle East;

(6) Continuing to handle priest and bishop child abuse allegations secretly within the Vatican under Ratzinger’s hand picked protege, Cardinal Mueller;

(7) Pursuing effective child protection reform measures very slowly and almost secretly in a new advisory committee (A) headed by Cardinal Law’s successor, Cardinal O’Malley, who is experienced with “handling” abuse investigations confidentially, and (B) assisted by Law’s, O’Malley’s and Mueller’s predictable and pliable longtime canon lawyer, Fr. Oliver;

(8) Diverting attention from priest child abuse matters with tightly controlled media directed “synod spectacles” of numerous “cherrypicked” celibate men discussing privately and anonymously arcane and insufficient theological justifications for “doctrines/disciplines”, that many adult Catholics have already in practice rejected, relating to divorce, contraception, cohabitation, gay marriage and similar sexual morality matters generally “foreign” to celibate hierarchs;

(9) Deflecting attention from the Vatican’s worldwide financial and sex scandals to a “New Devil”, a small number of Islamicist terrorists who threaten and attack some local Middle East Christians, and perhaps more importantly, are threatening to control much of the oil resources so important to some of Francis’ key political and financial allies; and

(10) Endeavoring to silence, marginalize or “manage” alternative prophetic and theological voices, especially women like Tina Beattie, Mary McAleese, Elizabeth Johnson, and the sisters of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious and of Network.

While the Vatican does not publicly disclose its legal and geo-political strategies formulated with considerable input from its high priced legal. financial and political advisers, it clearly has some. These current strategies can be reasonably inferred from the Vatican’s actions taken since Ratzinger indicated a year and a half ago that he would strategically retreat to an unprecedented “pope emeritus” or “shadow pope” position. Ratzinger, appears to be functioning as the Shadow Pope, as his oldest acquaintance, Hans Kung, had warned 18 months ago he would.

Ratzinger, then 85 years old at “retirement”, decided in February 2013 to make a strategic retreat to a nearby convent, to oversee from “retirement” a new strategy to defend against other escalating major investigations of Vatican wrongdoing, especially involving failures to protect children and to obey banking laws.

Ratzinger’s (and Francis’) top goal by most indications was and remains to keep the hierarchy out of the clutches of independent prosecutors. Civil fines and damages appear to be acceptable, since the Vatican appears to have access to substantial financial resources. This is discussed further below in the articles linked here at the bottom.

To get a sense of why the Vatican is trying so hard to keep out of the grasp of Obama’s Federal prosecutors, please note the remarks last year that Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney in Missouri, announced when a Roman Catholic priest, Fr. Shawn Ratigan, who abused under Bishop Finn’s facilitating watch, was sentenced in Federal court for producing child pornography.

“This sexual predator victimized five young children over a period of almost six years,” Dickinson said. “He violated his religious vows, betrayed the trust of his parishioners, and shocked the entire community. He deserves to spend the rest of his life in prison for his deliberate, planned, and chronic child sexual abuse. Today’s sentence of 50 years without parole, a virtual life sentence, is a just outcome to protect our children and our community from this predator priest… “

One wonders what this prosecutor would say about a conviction of Wesolowski, whom reportedly was permitted by the Vatican to roam freely in Rome after the Vatican smuggled him back to the Vatican’s “oversight”.

Please also see my, “Pope Francis’ Course and Crew For the “Synod Family Sail” Can Sink the Vatican Titanic” at:

[christiancatholicism.com]

For Hans kung’s warning to Pope Francis that letting Ratzinger stick around would be a real mistake, please see:

[huffingtonpost.com]

For additional information on Wesolowski and the priest child abuse situation in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, please see:

[eldia.com.do]

[foxnews.com]

[caribbeanbusinesspr.com]

[actualidad.com.do]

[zeit.de]

[pinellas.legalexaminer.com]

[dominicantoday.com]