Something Strange Is Happening at the Vatican

By Charles P. Pierce
Esquire
October 14, 2015

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a38870/pope-francis-enemies-scandals/

​Now, we've got the real thing brewing over at the Vatican. Somewhere in the crypts of Rome, poisoners, stranglers, libertines, students of Machiavelli, and other long-dead clerical errors from the good old days are feeling smiles crack the dessicated bones of their faces. This is old-school Catholic treachery. Grappa for the house, and see what the Borgias in the back room will have!​

In the letter, the senior churchmen said that if the reformers succeeded in changing the church's approach to modern families it could send the Catholic Church down the path of Protestant denominations that abandoned "key elements of Christian belief and practice in the name of pastoral adaptation."… In recent months, and with growing intensity since the synod opened, conservatives have accused reformers of "rigging" the synod and of engaging in skullduggery and various media "manipulations" to achieve changes—charges the letter from the cardinals seemed to support. "A number of fathers feel the new process seems designed to facilitate predetermined results on important disputed questions," says the letter, which was reportedly given to Francis on Oct. 5, the second day of the synod, by Australian Cardinal George Pell, a top curial official and vocal opponent of reforms. The letter reprises complaints that many bishops here have made: that the working document that is the basis of the discussions is flawed, that the bishops are trying to debate too many critical issues in too short a time, and that the group of 10 bishops picked by Francis to write a final summary report is skewed to the progressive side and instead should have been elected by the entire group.

Obviously, 'Fi were in the Chair of Peter, at least the Vatican officials who signed this document would soon find themselves reassigned to various Arctic parishes. This is not that kind of pope and, frankly, as a longtime supporter of collegiality in the governance of the Church, I can't criticize the pack o' scoundrels who signed this thing too critically on principle. But it is lovely to watch the people scream who've rigged every synod since John Paul II was elected. And they are an interesting bunch. To the surprise of absolutely nobody, many of them have track records on the worldwide scandal of clergy sexual abuse that are less than stellar. The apparent ringleader, Pell from Australia, has the stench of the scandal clinging to him to this day.

Ten thousand miles from Rome, in Pell's hometown of Ballarat, abuse victims and fellow priests have given testimony under oath that Pell knew about the dozens of children who were mistreated there… The sexual abuse there has been blamed for "hidden trauma and landscape of death" in the town, in the words of advocate Peter Blenkiron, who spoke to the Australian Broadcasting Corp. One former St. Alipius student who testified before the commission offered a photo of his fourth-grade class, lawyer for the commission Gail Furness told the ABC. Of the 33 boys pictured, 12 had committed suicide. One of the worst abusers was Gerald Ridsdale, a now-defrocked priest convicted of sexual offenses against more than 50 children. Ridsdale lived with Pell in Ballarat for two years.

(We pause here to point out to the Sherlock Holmes fans in our audience that this is indeed the same Ballarat that figures prominently in The Boscombe Valley Mystery. We continue.)

And it certainly is no shock to find Dolan from New York among the signers, any more than it is a shock to see that he's hiding behind his flacks now. The Cardinal Archbishop, Papal nuncio to the nation's green rooms, is especially notable for having hid assets from abuse victims by trying to stash them in a cemetery maintenance fund when he was presiding in Milwaukee. Yeah, these are the guys who should be upset that divorced Catholics might be able to receive Communion again. They're lucky to have this pope in office. Now where did I leave those thumbscrews?