Is Pope Francis’ Philippines’ Trip Overly “Stage Managed ?”, by Jerry Slevin, Christian Catholicism (January 17, 2015)

Is Pope Francis’ Philippines’ Trip Overly “Stage Managed ?”

By Jerry Slevin
Christian Catholicism
January 17, 2015

http://christiancatholicism.com/is-pope-francis-philippine-trip-overly-stage-managed/

Catholics have come to expect papal pageantry and scripted settings from its papacy that still operates often in a medieval manner. But Pope Francis’ trip to the Philippines seems to have taken things to a darker side. First, there were the shocking revelations that young street children were being rounded up by Manila officials and held in horrible conditions to clear the streets for Pope Francis’ visit, as reported here by the UK Daily Mail here: [Daily Mail]
Now there is a significant short Reuters’ video of Manila’s police preventing peaceful Filipino protesters trying to be visible to the pope from doing so, as seen on Reuters here: [Reuters]
Of course, if Pope Francis really wants to understand what the street children are facing, he should view the PBS report about Fr. Shay Cullen. This prophetic priest had earlier in 2012 discussed his work, over several decades with thousands of sexually abused Filipino children, on USA PBS-TV’s Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, indicating that even then, that the Filipino Catholic hierarchy appeared more concerned with curtailing contraception then with curtailing child sex trafficking and abuse. It is inexplicable why Francis did not meet with Fr. Cullen, as appears to be the case. Fr, Cullen has testified as an expert about child sexual exploitation before a an international relations committee of the US Congress.. Please see Fr. Cullen on PBS with some of the street children here [PBS] .
And if Francis wants to get a quick view of life for the many Manila poor, he might also watch the 2008 video showing some of the harsh conditions in the Tondo/Manila slum shown here [YouTube] .
This seemingly carefully planned “image management” of Pope Francis’ visit to the Philippines is disturbing, especially in view of Francis’ recent remarks about limiting free speech reported here [National Catholic Reporter] .
Despite some progressive liberal Catholics trying to find some hope by reading Pope Francis’ “tea leaves”, many conservative US Catholics see him differently. “It’s despicable that so many left-wing Catholics would jump on this [“liberal Francis”] bandwagon. I’m disgusted by the way Catholics who know better have sliced and diced his words,” reportedly said William Donohue, president of the Catholic League recently. Donohue reportedly added: “If you take a look at his positions on, let’s say marriage and abortion, there is nothing that is in any way different from his predecessors.” (my emphasis)
And Pope Francis has not yet even issued his encyclical letter on climate change. Flexing his wide ranging “expertise”, Pope Francis as anticipated and as reported by Reuters, waded into the climate change debate on Thursday (1/15/15), telling reporters that he believed that man was primarily responsible for climate change and that he hoped this year’s U.N. climate meeting in Paris would take a courageous stand to protect the environment.
The pope said his long-awaited encyclical on the environment was almost finished and that he hoped it would be published in June, ahead of the U.N. conference in November. “I don’t know if it is all (man’s fault) but the majority is. For the most part, it is man who continuously slaps down nature,” he told reporters aboard the plane taking him to Manila.
These words were his clearest to date on climate change, which has sparked worldwide debate and even divided conservative and liberal Catholics, particularly in the United States. “I think man has gone too far,” Francis reportedly said. “Thank God that today there are voices that are speaking out about this,” he also said.
One wonders, as the price of oil continues to dive, how Francis’ views on climate change will play out with, or be influenced by, some of his key advisers, including former “Big Oil” alumni, like Goldman Sachs International’s Chairman, Peter Sutherland, a former long time Chairman of BP, or by Catholic University of America’s significant donors, the Koch Brothers
Clearly, some progressives need to reassess their views of Pope Francis as he starts getting into specifics, no?
For more on Pope Francis in the Philippines, please see my Pope Francis Errs About Women, Children, Politics & Economics .