The Vatican, still reeling from its shock after Archbishop Carlo Viganò’s testimony only weeks ago, is attempting to break its silence on the matter making several pathetic attempts to respond to the current crisis.
The first attempt seemed to be couched in a papal homily this past week given at Santa Marta, in which Pope Francis, reacting to the Viganò statement in his sermon, essentially blamed Satan for victimizing the bishops who are looking for answers in that statement.
In his homily, he said: “In these times, it seems like the ‘Great Accuser’ has been unchained and is attacking bishops,” said Pope Francis September 11, as reported by Vatican News. “True, we are all sinners, we bishops. He tries to uncover the sins, so they are visible in order to scandalize the people,” he added.
Again, another attempt at refocusing the issue by redirecting the blame.
The following day Pope Francis called for a meeting in February, almost half a year from now — this is a response to something deemed a crisis? No urgency here, folks — with representatives of all the Catholic bishops of the world in order to discuss the protection of minors and vulnerable adults. For those Catholics who were looking for a clear and focused response to the Viganò testimony, Pope Francis is delivering his usual equivocating disappointment.
This should come as no surprise — only days ago the Pope met with the so called C9 or Council of Cardinals (a group largely made up of his personal cronies) for advice on Church reform. Almost half of these are facing sex-abuse claims and allegations, either personally or within their dioceses. The result of that meeting seems to be another unproductive meaningless get-together. It will serve to take this crisis off the front pages, given its February timetable. In other words, more stonewall.
And as we go to press today, after concluding a meeting with the Pope at the Vatican, the president of the USCCB, Daniel Cardinal DiNardo, just issued the following statement regarding the recent moral crisis in the Catholic Church in America:
“We are grateful to the Holy Father for receiving us in audience. We shared with Pope Francis our situation in the United States — how the Body of Christ is lacerated by the evil of sexual abuse. He listened very deeply from the heart. It was a lengthy, fruitful, and good exchange.
“As we departed the audience, we prayed the Angelus together for God’s mercy and strength as we work to heal the wounds. We look forward to actively continuing our discernment together identifying the most effective next steps.”
Well, looks like more of the same.
As clarity on this topic lingers from our lead Shepherd in the days ahead, the media spinmeisters will try to label the opposition as homophobic and continue to discredit Archbishop Viganò, instead of addressing the real phobia common to many prelates during the past 50 years. That is, the preaching of sins violating the Sixth Commandment, a void which can be blamed for much of the mess in which the Church currently finds itself.
The crisis continues as platitudes and hollow words of concern and more calls for useless committees and meetings have replaced the silence and the unanswered questions for this week — and so the stonewalling endures from a Pope whose pontificate is becoming more and more synonymous with chaos and confusion.
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