Pope Francis Still Treats Catholics & the Media As Docile Dopes -Why?, by Jerry Slevin, Christian Catholicism (January 25, 2015)

Fr. Richard McBrien, like Pope Francis, a 78 year old Jesuit educated priest, has passed to his well earned eternal reward, see “Fr. Richard McBrien, theologian, has died “, here [National Catholic Reporter]

Fr. McBrien brilliantly, bravely and honestly educated millions of adult Catholics about church history and theology, the good, the bad and the ugly, despite heavy handed right wing resentment that he unfairly faced often. He trusted fully Jesus’ Gospel message that the truth would make Catholics free. Catholicism ( also the title of Fr. McBrien’s magnum opus) will always be in his debt.

Pope Francis, by contrast to Fr. McBrien, acts often as the modern Wizard of Oz and too often treats adult Catholics as docile children, seeking mythical reassurances about infallibility, contraception and even the devil. Then, who is Dorothy and where is her dog, Toto?

Dorothy is Glyzelle Palomar, a courageous 12 year old Manila street child and sex abuse victim, who recently challenged the pope before a world audience. Toto is the media that is awakening from it Fancismania/Opus Dei induced coma. See Glyzelle’s beautiful picture, despite her very sad eyes, here [National Catholic Reporter] in the article, “The Catholic church’s complicity in Glyzelle Palomar’s suffering“.

The US political context of Pope Francis’ obvious Wizard of Oz strategy has been well documented by Betty Clermont in her important new analysis set forth below, and in her excellent book, “The Neo-Catholics: Implementing Christian Nationalism in America“, at [Amazon]

Fr. McBrien had been close to courageous US Catholic political leader, Mario Cuomo, who also recently moved on to his similarly well earned eternal reward. Former NY Governor Cuomo took on his Church publicly and bravely. Now opportunistic US national Catholic politicians, like Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, John Boehner, Paul Ryan, Dick Durban, Rick Santorum, Peter King, Rudy Guiliani, Jerry Brown, Chris Christie, Bobby Jindal, et al., opportunistically work hard, no matter what, to avoid challenging the pope and US Catholic bishops, especially on priest child abuse cover ups. Rudy and Peter were my school chums and really disappoint me. They know better.

Current US Catholic politicians evidently can read Francis’ earlier poll numbers and also can count, for example, the Koch Brothers’ major new donation to the Catholic University of America, the only US university directly controlled by the US bishops and the Vatican. The donation was hardly unexpected, especially after Pope Francis and his US bishops’ key role in helping elect a right wing “low tax/low regulation” Republican US Congress majority a few months ago.

Indeed, top US bishop culture warrior, Philly’s Archbishop Chaput, apparently almost finished with covering up his Philly Archdiocese’s horrendous priest child abuse record over several decades, is ahead of Pope Francis on the 2016 US elections. Chaput is even lecturing Mitt Romney’s Mormon colleagues, see “Archbishop Chaput at BYU [The Mormon’s Brigham Young University] at

The Papal Wizard’s Yellow Brick Road is mainly the rigged top down system that secretively makes 5,000 celibate men Catholic bishops worldwide. The are “made for life, like the wiseguys” — wealthy and unaccountable “kings’ of their own diocesan fiefdoms, one for all and all for one! These bishops collect and share with the Vatican the “taxes” and “subsidies donated by many of the near comatose 99.99% of the world’s Catholics, who seemingly donate blindly to fund unaccountable structures that help create the conditions that made, and still make, “Glyzelle’s hell on earth” possible.

Glyzelle now has some physical security, but millions of similar “Glyzelles” are not so fortunate, including those innocent children who were imprisoned or just “hidden” to avoid undercutting the recent “Goebbels’ like” Philippine papal propaganda parades and photo ops, as reported in “Children CAGED to keep the streets clean for the Pope” here [Daily Mail] and “Manila homeless removed from streets, kept at luxury resort during papal visit” [ here ].

Glyzelle’s parents could not afford to raise her. A few hours after hugging Glyzelle on camera, Pope Francis’ real reply, in effect, to her obscene and life altering experiences as an abandoned street child, was offered by the pope before 6 million people in person and many more millions via worldwide media, Pope Francis directly and pointedly mandated that Catholic couples like Glyzelle’s parents should avoid contraception and, in effect, keep having babies who would likely be forced to follow Glyzelle’s perilous path. Really ! Incidentally, did Francis upbraid Cardinal Tagle about the outrageous street children round-ups? What do you think?

If you want to help the millions of street children like Glyzelle avoid becoming sex slaves for tourists and, yes, for some priests most likely as well, whose alternative is often eating at garbage dumps, ACT Now! Begin by signing the petition for a UK national child sexual abuse commission at change.org/abuseinquiry , as discussed in “Theresa May’s child abuse inquiry shame: Petition launched …” here

“In the wake of their 2012 election defeats, “pragmatic, pro-business” leaders of the Republican Party issued an “autopsy report” in March 2012:
…a remarkably hard-headed diagnosis of the party’s many liabilities: its ideological rigidity, its preference for the rich over workers, its alienation of minorities, its reactionary social policies and its institutionalized repression of dissent and innovation.
….Voters’ belief that “the G.O.P. does not care about them is doing great harm.” Formerly loyal voters gathered in focus groups describe Republicans as “‘scary,’ ‘narrow-minded’ and ‘out of touch’ and that we were a party of ‘stuffy old men.’”
….The report also warns that Republicans need to mute, if not silence, anti-gay rhetoric if they are to have any chance of regaining support among voters under the age of 30.
…. “We looked at the last two election cycles and came to the conclusion that we lost from four to seven U.S. Senate seats not because of the party message, in those cases, but because of the party’s messenger.”

When the College of Cardinals assembled in the same month to attend meetings prior to electing the next pope, the American cardinals arrived with their own press corps and equipment. They set up their own press headquarters at the Pontifical North American College even though the Vatican press office announced it would give daily press briefings. By making U.S. prelates accessible to the 5000 members of the press gathered in Rome with not much else to report, Team USA (as I call them) was able control the talking points.

The leading papabile was Cardinal Angelo Scola, an Italian and a “Ratzinger man.” So Team USA promoted an anti-Italian, anti-Ratzinger (by criticizing his Curia) sentiment among the cardinals, especially those from outside the usual centers of Vatican power – Asians, Africans, Latin Americans – who perhaps would be more persuadable, in order to elect their man.

“Stopping the [Vatican] leaks will be one challenge in a media culture which lives on leaks. It’s just the way to do business here in Rome,” Sr. Mary Ann Walsh, media relations director for the USCCB wrote.

Other Team USA insiders joined the attack.

The Vatican Bank’s “murky dealings…involved Italians who have, sort of, an Italian way of doing things in the Vatican,” stated John Thavis, Vatican correspondent for nearly 30 years for the Catholic News Service, the official news agency of the USCCB.

“The Curia is still deeply influenced by Italianate work habits and that’s problematic,” George Weigel, one of the founding U.S. theocons, opined.

“An anti-Italian sentiment seemed to grow among [the cardinal/electors],” noted Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani Thorne of Lima, Peru. In short order, the cardinals were demanding “reform of the Curia” as the most pressing order of business for a new pontiff.

So we now have a pope who eschews “ideological rigidity, a preference for the rich over workers,” and “reactionary social policies” and appears to favor “institutional dissent and innovation.” Unlike his predecessor, the new pope does not appear to be “scary, narrow minded or out of touch.” He has “muted anti-gay rhetoric” and quieted his own “party’s messengers” who sounded too uncompromising and dogmatic.

“Eighteen months ago, the big Catholic stories were sex abuse scandals, crackdowns on nuns and bruising political controversies. Those stories obviously haven’t gone away, but they areno longer the dominant Catholic narrative. The dominant Catholic narrative today is more like rock star pope takes the world by storm,” John L. Allen Jr., Vatican correspondent for theBoston Globe, wrote in September.

In the November 2014 election campaigns, “many Republican candidates are taking steps to project a more moderate image and try to inoculate themselves from attacks portraying them as extremists. To win, Republican candidates must offer ‘common-sense ideas’ thatdemonstrate compassion and expand their support beyond base Republican voters.”

In just this month:

The Vatican said Pope Francis will speak about poverty at the UN this September.
“Mitt Romney’s Re-Invention As Anti-Poverty Warrior”
Rick Santorum is “reinventing himself as an anti-poverty crusader like Mitt Romney.”
“GOP 2016 hopefuls talk big about poverty and the middle class but they’re all talk”

Catholic leaders urge support for the U.S. bishops’ efforts on immigration reform.
“Jeb Bush Sounds Sympathetic Note for Immigrants”

The pope will issue an encyclical in 2015 on climate change.
“Senate Passes Amendment Declaring Climate Change is Real”

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Thank you, Betty, for your typically honest and well supported analysis. If only more reporters half your age even had half your energy and tenacity, we might be able to resume our retirements in peace!