Because his country is a mess.
About which, he has nada to say, even as he has
- received large monthly payments from the government—and invested the funds in European financial ventures rather than in his own cash-starved country . . .
Behaved like a rat, that is. In other ways also, while serving as
chairman of the Council of Cardinals, offering Pope Francis advice on how to restructure the Vatican . . .
He’s a rat, I say. Not that Francis has a problem with that.
via Catholic Culture
What did Pope Francis know and for what reasons has he engaged in this “rare display of papal power.”
Transparency and accountability; accountability and transparency. These are the time-honored means of restoring credibility to an institution that has lost public trust. We hear the words often these days from Church leaders. But will we ever see more than the words? Will we actually see accountability and transparency in practice? That, too, is something we just don’t know.
Say it isn’t so, Holy Father. Have you acted this way for no good reason? In these times of stress and turmoil?
He’s having none of it, as explained in this detailed reportage about the whys, hows, at whose instigation.
Questions remain unanswered about the canonical process by which Bishop [Martin] Holley was removed.
While Pope Francis established in 2016 norms by which a bishop can be removed through a Vatican process, it is not clear whether that process was used in Holley’s case, or whether the Congregation for Bishops, on which Cardinal Wuerl [for whom he was an auxiliary bishop for
two years in Washington] sits, was involved [as Holley says].
Meanwhile, why isn’t it clear that process was used? The faithful don’t deserve to know? Francis recommends silence about his being the object of once-unimaginable public criticism, as by former ambassador to the U.S. Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano?
But about how the Memphis man was ousted, he is practicing that old devil secrecy. Ever with us, it seems, secrecy, secrecy, secrecy.
Sphinx-like pontiff.
I ask because it’s one of the big questions being pursued by investigators.
“These devices should be considered dangerous,” said William Sweeney, assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He said the probe is “in its early stages,” and the agency is working quickly to analyze clues from the packages at its facility in Quantico, Va.
Investigators are trying to determine whether the suspected bombs were operational, officials said.
A cautious assessment that.
More caution:
When asked whether the homemade devices were designed to explode, Mr. O’Neill said law-enforcement officials are treating them as “live devices” and not as hoaxes. “This is something that should be taken seriously,” he said.
The devices are being treated is if they are “live.” Designed to explosive and not set to explode. Not armed, as sometimes is said.
More:
The FBI’s Mr. Sweeney said a powder found in the package delivered to CNN’s Manhattan office on Wednesday and addressed to former Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan didn’t present a biological threat, but investigators were conducting further tests.
So far, nothing. But better safe than sorry, of course:
At the FBI facility in Quantico, Va., the suspected bombs will be tested for “everything under the sun,” a federal official said.
Go, FBI.
And that’s all, folks.
The November elections in Illinois aren’t about some Democratic revenge fantasy, punishing President Donald Trump for putting Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court.
And the November elections in Illinois aren’t really about some Republican revenge fantasy to punish Gov. Bruce Rauner for betraying his conservative base by signing that bill on taxpayer-funded abortion.
The November elections in Illinois — only weeks away now — are about two things:
• Your taxes.
• And the power of House Speaker Michael Madigan, the Southwest Side state Democratic boss, the longest ruling House speaker in American history, who has become incredibly wealthy in his tax reduction legal practice while also presiding over the fiscal collapse of Illinois.
Boss Madigan’s butler, J.B. “Toilets” Pritzker, thinks if he’s elected in November he’ll actually be the real governor. He may have the title of governor. But all J.B. will have is a sash to wear at ceremonial events.
Does JB realize this? Do enough voters? It’s the sash, stupid?
ROME – It’s a universally acknowledged reality of the sea that it’s never the tip of the iceberg that sinks a ship, but what lies under the water unseen. Yet, to the trained eye, the visible white mass usually is enough to warn of the dangers ahead and to change course.
In the case of Chile’s clerical sexual abuse scandals, Pope Francis first brushed against the tip of the iceberg in 2015, when he decided to transfer a Chilean bishop named Juan Barros, accused of having covered up abuse, to a southern diocese.
Yet Francis repeatedly ignored the alarms that came loud and clear. Victims of the pedophile priest Fernando Karadima, for whom Barros allegedly covered up, spoke with anyone who would listen, including members of the pope’s own Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. The media, both in Chile and in Rome, kept the case in the spotlight. Chilean politicians sent a letter to the pope asking him to change course, and even some bishops spoke up against the nomination.
But Francis kept going, full steam ahead.
via Crux
He doesn’t exactly put people to sleep, but . . .
LeBron James’s debut with the Los Angeles Lakers had all the makings of a fantastic spectacle—a must-see television extravaganza that marked the beginning of a new era for maybe the greatest player of all time. There was no way that a fan like Colin Hebert was going to miss it.
And then he found himself sound asleep by halftime.
. . . it’s location, location, location, as any retailer knows. . If he’d bring his show to Chicago, in the center of the nation, he’d fewer to no people asleep..
via WSJ
It’s a problem that’s never been high on his agenda.
“He’s been ambivalent, muddled on sex abuse. It’s not been at the top of his priority list, ever,” said Paul Vallely, a British journalist and author of Pope Francis: The Struggle for the Soul of Catholicism, a biography.
Consider Chile.
Nowhere has the pope tripped more than in Chile, which once had one of the highest percentages of Catholics in Latin America. Allegations there involve 167 Catholic officials and 178 victims so far. Prosecutors recently raided church buildings, seized documents and arrested a prominent priest, putting the abuse scandal front and center in the pope’s native region.
“The future of the church is in play here,” said Juan Pablo Hermosilla, a Santiago lawyer who represents sex-abuse victims. “What is happening in Chile is very important for the region, and what happens in Latin America is going to be very important for the church.”
Indeed, “Chile is for the first time no longer a majority-Catholic nation.”
It’s not his fault, say some.
Defenders of Pope Francis say criticism of him is unfair because most of the cases now coming to light happened long ago. Some say the abuse scandal has been exploited by people who oppose the pope’s calls for expansive immigration policies, his warnings about economic inequality and global warming as well as his leniency on divorce.
But he has a checkered history.
Since 2001, church law has required bishops to inform the Vatican about any report of sex abuse of a minor “which has at least a semblance of truth.” As archbishop of Buenos Aires from 1998 to 2013, [however] the future pope referred just two cases to the Vatican, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The Chile scene:
Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, a top papal adviser with a strong record on combating sex abuse in the U.S., publicly rebuked the pope for causing pain to abuse victims by dismissing their claims. The pope apologized but repeated the charge of slander on his flight back to Rome
He has a history of fudging or forgetting in these matters:
The pope also said the Chilean accusers had never approached him with their abuse complaints. Two weeks later, it was revealed that Cardinal O’Malley had given the pope a detailed letter from one victim more than two years earlier.
The Marists, who also have a Chicago base, made a big splash, more a swamp, in Chile.
The criminal investigation in Chile has rocked the nation’s chapter of the Marists, a Catholic religious order that runs 12 schools there. Victims accuse church officials at some of the schools of preying on boys over decades.
“A system of impunity”: A phrase to remember.
“There was a system of impunity that allowed this to happen,” said Emiliano Arias, a prosecutor who led a raid on church offices in four cities in September. “I’m certain there are more cases.”
The ancient-history rebuttal won’t wash:
Eneas Espinoza said he was abused in the 1970s at the Alonso de Ercilla Institute, a Marist-run school in downtown Santiago. Prosecutor Raúl Guzmán has identified 26 suspects and 40 victims in cases dating from 1968 to 2016.
Ugly stuff:
Mr. Espinoza, 45 years old, recalled his school as hell. A Marist brother from Spain would take him out of class and sexually abuse him, Mr. Espinoza said. Afterward, the brother would instruct the 6-year-old boy to brush his teeth.
As an adult, Mr. Espinoza said, he associated brushing with abuse and avoided it, eventually losing most of his teeth.
A-OK today?
A representative for Chile’s branch of the Marist order said the schools now have policies to prevent abuse and were “absolutely safe” for children.
The system is abolished? Good for them if that is so. Like at the Vatican? Prognosis was not good as regards to the new pope. Considering for his record (again) . . .
When victims of abuse went public in Argentina, he refused to meet them. In 2006, as head of the Argentine bishops conference, he denounced what he called a media campaign against the Rev. Julio Grassi, founder of a well-known orphanage who was accused of abusing children under his care. Father Grassi was eventually sentenced to 15 years in prison, a verdict upheld last year by Argentina’s highest court.
Blind spot there? Meanwhile, in Rome, something had to be done:
In March 2014, the pope established an advisory panel on child protection, at the urging of Cardinal O’Malley of Boston. The panel included two prominent abuse victims-turned-advocates, which raised hopes of greater influence from laypeople. The panel proposed a special tribunal for trying bishops accused of covering up or neglecting abuse by priests.
The pope accepted the recommendation and the Vatican announced [his] decision in 2015.
It didn’t happen.
The tribunal wasn’t set up. Instead, the pope amended church law the following year to specify that bishops’ negligence in abuse cases was grounds for dismissal.
With foreseeable results.
The pope’s change of mind was a disappointment for Marie Collins, a well-known victim of clerical sex abuse who served on the advisory panel. She resigned last year, complaining of Vatican inaction, and was joined by Peter Saunders, the other panel member who had been an abuse victim.
Pattern here, where bishops, including in this the bishop of Rome, prove hard to work with and frustrating to lay people. The aftermath of this instance? Pope says he and one of the lay people met and . . .
The pope told reporters he had spoken with Ms. Collins and heard her concerns. Ms. Collins said they had no such conversation. (emphasis added)
And her vote of no confidence:
“He has done nothing really to give confidence back to people that the church has a grip on this issue,” Ms. Collins said. “He’s made these statements about zero tolerance and then not operated zero tolerance.”
It’s a pattern, yes.
via: Pope Francis’ Handling of Sex-Abuse Cases Fractures a Catholic Stronghold-
WSJ
Blithe Spirit 