NY Times Pulls Punches As SNAP Jabs Pope & Pols

By Jerry Slevin
Christian Catholicism
February 10, 2015

http://christiancatholicism.com/ny-times-pulls-punches-as-snap-jabs-pope-us-pols-on-abuse-ploys/

[Vatican analyzes priest accused of pedophilia expulsion]

Ross Douthat, at least, an opinion writer for the New York Times (NYT), seems to be pulling his paper’s punches on the evasive papal sex abuse commission. He seems, along with his “papal promoter tag team ally”, the Boston Globe’s John Allen, to be following “low tax” billionaires’ right wing 2016 US election talking points in discussing the almost farcical commission of this “Teflon Pope”.

The commission is being exposed steadily to be no more than a classic political stall tactic in the form of an extremely unfocused, open ended, conflicted, inefficient and understaffed “study commission”, that is being orchestrated apparently by disgraced Boston Cardinal Law’s former canon lawyer, Fr. Robert Oliver.

Douthat, who evidently overlooked the Cardinal Law connection, also struggles in his latest papal puff piece to credit right wing Opus Dei for the work of the popular Latino martyr, Oscar Romero, who is now a centerpiece of Francis’ right wing 2016 US election strategy. Douthat seems still to be reeling from his recent apology for speaking for a fee at an allegedly right wing anti-gay group’ s event, see here, [New York Times] and here, [Media Matters]

This spin in the NYT occurs just as seemingly sober (who can know for sure) Archbishop Cordileone, an ominous episcopal invitee to the pope’s Final Synod on the Family in less than eight months, provocatively steps up his homophobic crusade in the San Francisco home turf of the highest ranking elected woman in US history, practicing Catholic and pro-choice and pro-gay marriage Nancy Pelosi, see here, [Think Progress] .

Will Nancy Pelosi respond adequately and effectively? So far, she has apparently failed to do so.

SNAP and Catholicwhistleblowers (CW) have both just stepped up the pressure, perhaps in part out of concern that Fr. Oliver seems to have induced two prominent abuse survivors to help promote the new “go slow” papal sex abuse commission. The CW pressure includes a new CW documentary that may appear soon on the US PBS TV’s widely respected Front Line program, see here,[National Catholic Reporter] .

Meanwhile, Pope Francis is taking increasing heat from many quarters, including from an African child advocate over his “fallible” and insensitive advice on “spanking children with dignity”, as reported here, [UKZAMBIANS] .

Pope Francis is also being challenged by Holocaust victim activists following the release of Jesuit educated and former Wall Street lawyer, Gerald Posner’s explosive book, “God’s Bankers: A History of Money and Power at the Vatican” , (see at [Amazon] link). Posner’s new report, about the Vatican’s secret role in the theft of Holocaust victims’ assets, apparently contributed to the challenge to Pope Francis here, [Market Watch] .

The pope is also taking heat over the Vatican’s earlier role in oppressing Native Americans and Native Canadians, among others, as reported by former New York Times’ reporter, Ken Briggs, “Pete Rose, Meet Junipero Serra“, here, [National Catholic Reporter] , and here,

[blackburnnews.com]

And another potential papal mess is brewing following the recent meeting of German Chancellor Merkel and US President Obama. Some are calling for these leaders to show more fortitude on protecting children from priest sex abusers like Australian, Irish and UK leaders already have, even to shift some of the excessive subsidies that both their countries pay to support obscene “bling bishops” in Germany and the USA.

German government direct subsidies to Catholic bishops reportedly exceed $7 billion a year, and US indirect subsides (contribution tax deductions, tax exemptions, etc.) are likely even much higher. In addition, both countries face escalating governmental social welfare expenditures related to tens of thousands of survivors of priest sexual abuse that the Catholic Church has virtually abandoned, including by voluntary bankruptcy tactics. On the subsidies, see here, “What You Don’t Know About Catholic Charity or Social Justice“, and here.

[blog.mygermanexpert.com]

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The pope, of course, has been facing for some time building governmental pressure from the remarkable Australian Royal Commission. He now faces it in the UK as well (as reported here, [Mirror] and here, [BBC News]), and will probably face more investigatory pressure in the USA and Germany soon enough, as SNAP’s new call described below indicates.

Francis’ fellow Jesuit, Fr. Hans Zollner, a key member of the pope’s sex abuse commission, seems to be reading from a different script, in his recent and almost embarrassing promotional interview on Vatican Radio. entitled “Child protection at top of Pope Francis’ priority list“, here, [Vatican Radio] He seemingly tried to shift attention from more lucrative papal subsidy nations like Germany and the USA to less affluent countries like Poland, Croatia and Hungary.

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SNAP’s President, Barbara Blaine, an abuse survivor, a lawyer and a key player in Australia’s superb structuring of its Royal Commission, has finally gone after the US national political establishment for a national approach, which includes President Obama and Catholics Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi and John Boehner, Barbara just boldly stated (in italics):

“In September, Pope Francis will address the US Congress, a body that has refused, over decades, to take a single action to investigate or expose clergy sex abuse and cover up by Catholic priests, bishops, nuns, seminarians and brothers. … “

“But as a body, no federal US institution has ever taken action about – or even investigated – this horrific, on-going scandal. … “

“When dozens of baseball players were charged with illegal use of steroids, Congress held hearings. But Congress has held no hearings whatsoever when it comes to the known 6,427 US priests that are credibly accused of sexually assaulting more than 100,000 children … ”

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An obvious target of Barbara Blaine’s fair criticism is Nancy Pelosi. In her chapter in a 2009 Kerry Kennedy book, Nancy indicated that the pedophile scandal was a “major sorrow” for her and she had “very strong views” on how the Church dealt with it. It is long overdue for Pelosi to act on her views, no?

Nancy Pelosi has surely done much to help US couples get access to effective family planning options, but she has for much too long been missing in action, mostly, in protecting US children from priest sexual predators and their bishop accomplices, no?

Pelosi in 2011 supported the appointment of a Western US Province Jesuit to be US House Chaplain, even though the Jesuit chaplain, a civil lawyer, had reportedly failed to follow up on another priest’s alleged abuse. This Jesuit’s Western Province also had paid out $166 million in abuse claims.

It appears that Pelosi’s family’s connections to Georgetown University, and likely politics as well, trumped her strong views about the pedophile priest scandal, no? She can make some amends now by publicly setting Pope Francis straight when he visits the US Congress. Enough with the “Holy Father nonsense”!

Nancy Pelosi also in her book chapter movingly described how disappointed she was when Pope Paul VI confirmed the papal contraception ban in 1968 in his encyclical, “Humanae Vitae”. She indicated that at 28 years old she was then expecting her fourth child in four years. She noted ” … we could afford a big family and we had a loving family situation … “. She indicated also that the the Vatican made its decision and she made her decision. She apparently conceived and bore one more child after 1968.

One wonders how many wealthy Catholic women themselves in the US Congress, or how many of their daughters and granddaughters, have relied regularly on unreliable and problematical “natural family planning” as birth control as mandated by modern popes, including Pope Francis? Perhaps none, no? Are poor women worldwide “chopped liver”?

This papal ban had been rejected overwhelmingly in 1966 by Pope Paul VI’s so-called papal birth control commission, including clear rejection by cardinals, bishops, top theologians and informed lay members, including women, scientists, psychologists and other experts. The commission studied the morality of the birth control “pill” and contraception thoroughly over a four year period.

The commission’s final report, however, was undercut secretively by conservative Cardinals with clout over Pope Paul VI. These Cardinals and the pope worried about undermining the case for papal infallibility, and thereby weakening papal power tied to infallibility If Paul VI approved the pill in 1968, less than four decades after an earlier pope in 1930 condemned birth control, apparently mainly for geo-political reasons, Paul VI would risk losing any future claim to papal infallibility. Paul VI was looking out for No. 1, it appears, so he rejected his own commission’s persuasive report.

This 1966 commission’s still relevant story has been well described by Robert Blair Kaiser in his classic and superb book, “The Politics of Sex and Religion”. Kaiser is a former reporter for The New York Times, prize-winning foreign correspondent (for Time) and, later, for Newsweek in Rome. He has generously made this classic book available for free as an downloadable e-book at [Smashwords] .

Ironically, Kaiser has indicated that as a Jesuit trainee in the 1950’s he coached Nancy’s husband, Paul Pelosi, in high school football! Three decades after Kaiser wrote this classic, has she or her husband read this classic. If not, they should and I really hope they do before Pope Francis addresses Congress in September.

There was only one commission report. Please also note a recent effort by conservatives to undercut this papal commission’s final official report by resurrecting the last ditch ploy in 1966 by conservative Cardinals and the pope to create a misleadingly named “minority report” at [National Catholic Reporter].

For a defensible and responsible way that Pope Francis can readily resolve this matter now, if he really wants to, please see the important and compelling brief analysis by the world’s leading authority on Catholic sexual morality, Fr. Charles Curran, at [National Catholic Reporter] .

The Catholicwhistleblowers, who include Fr. Tom Doyle, respected canon lawyer, a Dominican priest in good standing and the world’s top expert on curtailing priest child abuse, have reacted strongly to the pope’s evasive sex abuse commission. The CW have stated (in italics):

“Yet, we also note that the Commission does not need to reinvent the wheel. The Code of Canon Law already provides the way for Pope Francis to deal with these bishops and religious superiors.”

“Indeed, the pope has power and authority over all of the Church which he is always able to exercise freely (cc. 331, 333, §1 and 590, §1). And nothing in Church law prohibits the application of Church law by the pope regarding bishops and religious superiors.”

Significantly, Pope Francis has inexcusably to date failed to appoint Tom Doyle to the sex abuse commission. Fr. Doyle and the pope both worked, at different times within a few years of each other, under the same Cardinal, Pio Laghi. Why is Tom Doyle being overlooked? What is the pope afraid of ?

They pope’s advisory commission now will have two more years to “study” and stall — likely then a full four years to change nothing of substance. Meanwhile, Pope Francis continues to honor disgraced Cardinals, including Law, Rigali and Danneels, who have poor records on dealing with priest sexual abusers.

And despite Ross Douthat’s papal puff pieces, many interested in protecting defenseless children and helping poor couples gain access to effective family planning options, long for a resumption by the NYT’s editors of the NYT’s incisive earlier excellent coverage of papal abuse cover-ups and suppression of family planning options that its excellent journalists, like Laurie Goodstein , Nick Kulish, Melissa Eddy and Maureen Dowd often provided.

Douthat appears to be part of a right wing media tag team with the Boston Globe’s John Allen that pump out “feel good’ stories about Pope Francis that must please the ‘low tax” billionaire investors in their employers (Carlos Slim at the NYT and John Henry at the Globe). The pope and his US bishops appear to be “all in” to help elect a “low tax” US president in 2016. Please see “Catholic Right Still Tied to Big-Money Republicans“, here, [Church and State].