UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism
Jerry Slevin
As Pope Francis reveals his resistance to real reforms, twenty-three Catholic priest associations and reform groups from ten countries and four continents have sent an Open Letter to the Pope asking him for change. Meanwhile, the pope prepares for his final “fatherless and motherless” Family Synod of celibate bishops upcoming in less than five months. The Open Letter was initiated at an international meeting recently held in Limerick, Ireland of international reform groups. On this major meeting, see here,”Lay reform groups discuss equality of women, church …” and “What happened in Limerick should not stay in Limerick “. For the full text of the letter, see here,
Will Pope Francis respond meaningfully to the Letter? Probably not. Two key Cardinals, Vatican based George Pell, a member of the pope’s top management committee, and Peter Erdo of Budapest, Hungary, reportedly predicted in separate recent interviews that “nothing will change” at the Final Synod. What is especially ominous is the fact that the Hungarian cardinal has a key role in the Final Synod as its a de facto moderator in charge of helping to frame the discussions.
The steady unveiling of the reality of Pope Francis’ actual anti-reform approach was recently reviewed perceptively and effectively at the Huffington Post by Canadian writer, Dennis Earl here, Why Pope Francis Isn’t a Liberal Reformer. Earl observes, in pertinent part, “It’s been quite the honeymoon. Not too long after Pope Francis succeeded Benedict XVI in March 2013 to become the new head of the Vatican, reporters, pundits and even comedians began to sing his praises. Why, exactly? Because he said things like, “I’m a sinner” and “If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?” and “The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone!… Even the atheists. Everyone!” “. Earl adds: “But, as the old saying goes, talk is cheap. Pope Francis can present himself as a more compassionate pontiff all he wants. With over 40 years experience working within the stubbornly Conservative Catholic Church, the 78-year-old is no liberal. The reality is he is quite content maintaining the status quo.” Earl then in detail itemizes specifically how the pope has maintained the conservative, if not fundamentalist, status quo. Earl notes finally ” … And considering what happened to former Australian priest Greg Reynolds, the idea of this Pope embracing any kind of significant reform is truly laughable. So stop calling him [Pope Francis] “progressive” already.” Reynolds in May 2013 was defrocked as a priest and even excommunicated under Pope Francis after he advocated support for women’s ordination and same sex marriage. It appears the ex-bouncer pope wanted to send a strong signal to reformers right from the beginning of his papacy.
And President Barack Obama is making clear to US Catholic bishops and to local Jesuits at Georgetown that he will personally be focused on the pope’s rhetoric about helping the poor, see the video here, President Obama Remarks Poverty Georgetown and the New York Times report here, Obama Urges Liberals and Conservatives to Unite on Poverty .
On Pope Francis’ current trajectory, this seems clear enough. Contraception, abortion in all circumstances, and homosexual love would then remain “mortal sins”; women would remain second class Catholics; the Church would remain a clerical dictatorship; and children would continue at unsafe risks of priest sexual abuse, it appears, despite the pope’s carefully staged spin to the contrary. Unless Pope Francis convenes a full ecumenical council before retiring, which seems unlikely, Catholics will have to look to their democratically responsive national governments to press the Vatican to reform, see my “Two Years In, Pope Must Call Council As John XXIII Did“.
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