This is from Ray Mouton, I could not improve on hie words to describe the pantomime which has taken place in Rome this weekend! Francis showing very clearly how concerned he is about the issues of clergy sexual abuse of children, and the UN's recent ruling regarding the vatican's abysmal record in dealing with it, by not even having it on the agenda!
Am I surprised ?-NO!
Is it a disgrace? -YES!
Will they EVER change?- Never in a million years ! Unless they are MADE to - cornered like rats in a trap! Lets keep up the pressure and corner them even more!
185 Cardinals gathered in Rome this week.
They greeted 19 new Cardinals named by Pope Francis and set about work in what Vatican observers called "the most critical week of Pope Francis' papacy."
Examine the agenda and decide for yourself whether there was anything critical about the Cardinals meeting in Rome this week.
As is the way of the Church, there were "closed door sessions" scheduled where Cardinals discussed issues.
High on the agenda was the Vatican Bank scandal for the bank is embroiled in money laundering investigations.
The Cardinals also went behind closed door to discuss issues like contraception, cohabitation, gay marriage, and whether divorced and remarried Catholics can receive communion.
CLERGY SEX ABUSE OF CHILDREN AND MINORS BY PRIESTS AND THE COVER UP OF THESE CRIMES WAS NOT A SUBJECT ON THE AGENDA.
No Catholic will ever know what was said by a Cardinal representing their country, nor will all Catholics know what the consensus of the Cardinals were on these subjects as everything in the Church is always secreted away from the faithful who are supposed to pledge blind allegiance to the hierarchy without knowing what the hierarchy is thinking, saying or doing behind closed doors. This is not the middle ages.
*** Importantly, these closed door meetings are by definition meaningless, as the real discussion of these issues is scheduled for another meeting of Cardinals in the fall. This week only involved "Cardinal chit chat."
Pope Francis also asked the hierarchy in each nation to provide feedback ahead of time about the attitude of their flocks; the blunt responses so far have already made public the sort of views that many church leaders would prefer to ignore or only speak about privately.
“There is a big gap between the Vatican and reality,” the Japanese bishops wrote in a frank assessment, published on Wednesday, of the views of their flock on contraception and related topics.
And the church is not helping matters, they added: “Often when Church leaders cannot present convincing reasons for what they say, they call it ‘natural law’ and demand obedience on their say-so,” the bishops wrote.
Bishops in other countries have found similar results when they surveyed the faithful. They have stirred debate not only by publishing the results but by calling for — as German and Swiss bishops did — “a new approach concerning Catholic sexual morality.”
The bishops of England and Wales were among the first to survey the pews but recently decided to keep the results secret, prompting sharp questions from some in the church. “It is somewhat bizarre to consult the faithful on matters of doctrine and then not to tell them what the consultation amounted to,” wrote the editors of The Tablet, a leading Catholic periodical.
In the U.S., some bishops have decided to poll their dioceses, but many have not, and it is not clear what information the American bishops gave to Rome about the attitudes of American Catholics, or how accurate and reliable the information is as "all" Catholics were not given these questionaires.
Right! Pope Francis asked Bishops to distribute questionnaires and some bishops did this and others did not, and some bishops were open about the results and others hid the results.
Those proposals and any response from the pope will remain secret for now, said the Vatican’s top spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi.
Lombardi also confirmed that the Council of Cardinals (the 8 hand-picked advisors to Pope Francis) had scheduled a meeting for late April, in addition to the one set for July, in an apparent effort to push ahead with changes to the rest of the unwieldy Vatican bureaucracy before the momentum stalls.
Part of the problem, said longtime Vatican journalist John Thavis, is that there is so much to do and Francis has appointed so many groups to do it that “the Vatican is experiencing a virtual gridlock of commissions, councils and consistories.” In addition, the Vatican has hired several outside consulting groups to provide feedback on fixing the systems.
“If I had to predict,” Thavis wrote on his blog, “I’d say that the framework for reforming the Vatican’s economic affairs and in particular the Vatican bank will come first, and changes in Roman Curia offices will take shape much later” (changing the Roman Curia, the bureaucratic machinery in the Vatican is the top priority of Pope Francis).
Francis “has started reforming the Curia but this is a process that will take some time and the reforms will need to be carefully examined,” Italian Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, a longtime curial official, told the Vatican Insider website.
Those proposals and any response from the pope will remain secret for now, said the Vatican’s top spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi.
Ironically, this pope who maintains that he wants to streamline Vatican administration, has in one short year, appointed more councils, commissions, consistories, and announced plans to appoint more commissions - more than his predecessors created in 25 years, insuring gridlock at the highest level of the Church.
For those who follow this page, it is only worthy of note that on this first occasion when Pope Francis assembled his Cardinals, clergy sex abuse was not on the agenda, despite the United Nations recently condemning the Vatican and demanding that the Pope punish the thousands of bishops who have covered up crimes.
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