UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism
Jerry Slevin
Pope Francis and the Vatican recently made, and then compounded, a major blunder in Chile that seriously undermines the pope’s own already teetering sex abuse commission and his aimless Family Synod upcoming in several months. The Vatican, and an exhausted pope, are now desperately trying to change the subject to worldwide violent attacks by senseless terrorists, to Francis’ upcoming futile Family Synod and to pointless papal trips— anything but the subject of continuing senseless violent sexual attacks on children by priests too often protected by unaccountable bishops.
It is too late for such papal spin. This mistake will even likely lead to some protests during the pope’s upcoming visit to the USA and UN, as well as undercut some of his influence among US Latino voters for next year’s US Republican presidential candidate, likely Spanish speaker, Jeb Bush. This Bush is Catholic, has a Mexican wife and also has close ties to the neo-con Catholic establishment.
Yes, it is too late for the pope to try to spin past this mistake. By bypassing his own abuse commission as Francis just did, few will now take serious either his own illusory commission’s relevance or his futile Family Synod, that absurdly lacks family participants, especially women, as full participants. This Chilean bishop mistake, and the Vatican’s cowardly confirmation of it, are the last straws for many Catholics, especially parents, as should have been clear by the unprecedented near riot at Barros’ installation, see here .
Clearly, the outcry against Pope Francis’s appointment to Osorno of Chilean Bishop Juan Barros, long associated with a notorious child abusing priest, has placed the pope’s already declining credibility, especially concerning his “zero tolerance” policy against sexual abuse, into further question, even among traditionally adamant papal supporters. This includes the US neo-conservative journal, “First Things”, a prime outlet often of key Catholic neo–cons like George Weigel. Mr. Weigel, who had been close to Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, reportedly has also had unusual access to Pope Francis, both currently as pope as well as when he was cardinal.
A usually supportive advocate of the dominant modern “infallible” papacy, William Doino, Jr., has indicated in First Things, fairly, correctly and pointedly, that the Vatican’s explanation of its Barros mistake is hardly persuasive. See “Pope Francis and Zero Tolerance“, where Doino perceptively criticizes the Vatican, here,
The Pope’s decision to appoint Barros as bishop of Osorno—even as Barros has been accused of covering up sexual abuse, and of being an eyewitness to the abuse—has been a source of consternation, not least among members of Francis’s own anti-abuse Commission, as Doino correctly points out.
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