UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism
Jerry Slevin
Pope Francis under international pressure “sacked” U.S. Bishop Robert Finn, who became a symbol of the Vatican’s stonewalling in addressing the priest sexual abuse crisis. Finn was the first bishop criminally convicted of mishandling an abusive priest. The child pornographer priest is serving a 50 year sentence in a US federal prison after an aggressive prosecution by President Obama’s Justice Department. Yet Finn remained in office for another three years — over two years under Pope Francis!
Francis has now been forced to set a precedent — criminally convicted bishops who protect predatory priests will be removed by the pope. So Francis must now try to make sure US Federal prosecutors avoid aggressively pursuing cases that may lead to bishops’ criminal actions and convictions as happened with Finn. Now Francis must continue his two predecessors’ efforts to maintain a protective alliance with right wing US Presidents (anyone but new grandmother, Hillary Clinton) as his predecessors withad done effectively with the Bush presidents. Still active Cardinal Angelo Sodano even confidently asked George W. Bush’s Secretary of State for help in stopping US proceedings involving the Vatican’s role in facilitating priest child abuse, after the ex-pope, Sodano and Cardinal Raymond Burke helped in 2004 re-elect GWB despite his disastrous Iraq War that led to over a million deaths and over $5 trillion in unnecessary expenditures so far.
First, Francis must, it appears, help get a right wing US president elected next year before the pope retires, as I expect he will do after the US elections. Francis is doing all he can evidently to draw out key right wing US voters with his appeals to fundamentalist US Latinos and evangelicals (e.g., crusades against gay marriage and contraception insurance coverage, adding Hispanic saints like Archbishop Romero and Junipero Serra, targeted references to Our Lady of Guadalupe and the devil, calling for another Middle East war to benefit Big Oil, etc.). Sacking Finn was therefore critical for Pope Francis’ election crusades, especially after his mishandling of the Bishop Barros’ appointment that led to the Chile revolt. Pope Francis has evidently carefully avoided the Barros subject publicly, even though he reportedly was involved in Barros’ appointment and likely knows him. Please see the superb and relevant analysis, “Vatican Defends the Chilean Appointment” here, BishopAccountability.org .
Francis acted barely a week after Marie Collins had her anti-climatic “non-meeting” with the pope. She wanted to discuss with Pope Francis his outrageous choice to make Juan Barros, who has been accused of helping shield a fellow priest abusing youths (including Juan Carlos Cruz), as the new bishop of Osorno, Chile. Barros’ bishop installation ceremony triggered unprecedented violent protests of thousands in majority Catholic Chile (see here, here, and here).
The Finn sacking shows that Marie Collins’ tenacity points to serious trouble after the Chile revolt for the pope’s upcoming visit to Philly, a key part of his evident and unfolding strategy to elect next year a “Vatican/US bishop friendly” right wing US president, with Jeb Bush the pope’s evident top choice. If the pope fails on curtailing child abuse, he becomes a US political liability. See my “Why Is Pope For A New US War That Aids Bush Neocons & Big Oil Mainly?” here, Christian Catholicism .
On cue, the US right wing media appear to have initiated attention to the anticipated 2016 USA national election alliance of the Vatican and Jeb Bush. This apparently will be a “reunion” for the Bush family and longtime Vatican power, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, and his clique. This seems evident in Jeb’s recent interview (with even a smiling Sodano-Jeb photo) by the National Review Online, “On the 20th Anniversary of His Conversion, Jeb Bush Talks Pope Francis and How to Win on Social Issues“, here, National Review.
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