UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism
Jerry Slevin
A century ago, Irish nationalists rebelled at Easter well aware they had a dominant Catholic Church behind them. Today, the Church in Ireland is in shambles. Significantly, a new rebellion emanating from Chile is now advancing on the Vatican. Catholic leaders and media flacks will dissemble and tout that 2/3rds of Chileans are Catholic (nominally). Yet a new poll indicates 3/4ths of Chileans have little trust in Catholic leaders and 9/10ths of them say Chileans have less trust now than they did a decade ago.
Pope Francis has had close personal and organizational ties to Chile for over a half century. Where will the Church there (and elsewhere) end up, even in the short term, under the pope’s current trajectory? As one informed observer noted, Chileans’ trust for their Church is in the basement and needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. Despite the pope’s artificially and transitory media star polling, the Vatican has a new crisis — the Latin American Church!
Yes, Pope Francis seems stuck in the basement and just keeps on digging, it appears. The illusory “vibrant Latino Church” is a myth. For much of the last few decades, Pope Francis and several of his clique of protégées of Cardinal Angelo Sodano, with their ties to right wing billionaires, have overseen its demise. And now right wing US billionaires are depending on Francis to deliver more of the US Latino vote next year for their “low tax/less regulation/least safety net” candidates like Jeb Bush. Good luck!
Francis is scrambling to find distractions from the Chile rebellion, including with over hyped Holy Week parades, and well timed government tax deals dictated mainly by prosecutorial pressures from Vatican financial scandals. The pope and a majority of his clerical picks will still control all Vatican finances. I had thought that Pope Francis’s “white” public relations’ balloon as the “happy pope” would float until this Christmas. By then, in the pope’s 80th year, it will have run out of air and he will have completed his fruitless and “family-less” Family Synods with little to show for it.
The Chilean rebellion (with its “black” balloons), that began in the Osorno Cathedral over the pope’s outrageous recent appointment of bishop Juan Barros, indicates that Pope Francis’ PR balloon may not make it to Christmas. He will be visiting the USA and the UN this summer and can now expect Osorno-like demonstrations there, perhaps led by Juan Carlos Cruz, a survivor of the sexual abuse that Cruz and others swear Barros condoned. Cruz now lives in Philadelphia where he is a key executive for a top global corporation.
Courageous UN leaders and political leaders in other nations like Australia, the UK, Chile, Ireland, et al., are already challenging the pope and his subordinates’ indefensible and ongoing records on protecting child abusers. By summer, USA leaders will likely be compelled to get on the bandwagon.
The sad, simple and undeniable truth is that Catholic bishops and priests worldwide will look at Barros’ promotion and now have clear confirmation that, despite all the pledges, policies, protocols, promises and panels, this pope is really no different than any who came before him, when the subject is protecting children, treating abuse survivors mercifully and holding bishops accountable for complicity on sexual abuse.
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