Pope Francis joins the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors in prayer at the Vatican on March 7, 2024. (Credit: Vatican Media)
Pope Francis encouraged the papal commission tasked with combatting clergy abuse to move forward in their efforts to make the Church a safer environment for both minors and vulnerable adults.
Acknowledging that it is easy to feel discouraged when confronting the realities of the sexual abuse crisis, the pope told the the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors on Thursday morning that “our commitment must not wane.”
“Indeed, I encourage you to move forward so that the Church will be, always and everywhere, a place where everyone can feel at home,” Pope Francis said.
Underscoring the importance of listening “firsthand” to abuse victims, the pope stressed to the body that “we cannot help others to bear their burdens unless we shoulder them ourselves, unless we show genuine closeness and compassion.”
“In our ecclesial ministry of protecting minors, closeness to victims of abuse is no abstract concept but a very concrete reality comprised of listening, intervening, preventing, and assisting,” the pope continued.
The pope also spoke on the importance of bringing greater visibility to the commission’s work.
“People should know and see how you are accompanying local Churches in their ministry of safeguarding minors. Your closeness will strengthen local ecclesial authorities to share best practices and verify that adequate measures have been taken,” the pope observed.
Francis highlighted the commission’s annual report as well as the Memorare Initiative as two examples of how the body’s work has assumed a “more defined shape” in making the Church “an increasingly safe place for minors and vulnerable adults.”
The Memorare Initiative was launched by the PCPM in 2023 in order to assist local Churches, namely in the global South, in training programs as well as in guiding abuse prevention policies. In December 2023, the commission approved a grant of 230,000 euros to help institute “safeguarding initiatives” in several countries including Paraguay, Panama, and Mauritius, and to the Association of Members Episcopal Conference in Eastern Africa (AMECEA).
“This is a very concrete way for the commission to demonstrate its closeness to the leadership of these Churches,” the pope explained. “This will create a network of solidarity with victims and those who promote their rights, especially where resources and experience are limited.”
The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors (PCPM) was established by Pope Francis in 2014 following a meeting with the Council of Cardinals as an advisory body “to propose initiatives to the Roman Pontiff … for the purposes of promoting local responsibility in the particular Churches for the protection of all minors and vulnerable adults.”
In 2022 the commission was placed within the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), in line with Pope Francis’ apostolic constitution Praedicate Evangelium, which reformed the governance of the Roman Curia, the administrative arm of the Holy See. However, the PCPM still reports directly to the pope through its president, Cardinal Seán O’Malley, archbishop of Boston.
The pope also pointed to the body’s compliance with his apostolic letter Vos Estis Lux Mundi, which established a new set of norms for the universal Church concerning the procedural handling of sexual abuse cases, as another example of the body’s work in bringing tangible action.
“I have already asked you to ensure compliance with Vos Estis Lux Mundi so that reliable means are in place for welcoming and caring for victims and survivors as well as for ensuring that the experience and witness of these communities support the work of protection and prevention,” the pope remarked.
Vos Estis Lux Mundi was promulgated in 2019 and established on an experimental basis for a period of three years new norms to counter sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. In 2023, the pope made the norms permanent and expanded its reach to also cover lay leaders of international associations of the faithful recognized by the Vatican.
However, some victims have questioned the effectiveness of these reforms, even suggesting that a culture of silence persists and victims remain sidelined.
In February two alleged abuse victims of disgraced former Jesuit mosaic artist Father Marko Rupnik spoke at an emotionally-charged press conference in Rome, highlighting what they perceived as the Vatican’s intransigence when it comes to listening to victims.
“We are sorry because the institutions, instead of taking inspiration from our experience to review their way of acting, continue to close themselves in silence,” said Marjiam Kovač, a Slovenian-born former sister of the now-dissolved Loyola Community who has accused Rupnik.
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ACI Africa, Mar 3, 2023 / 18:10 pm (CNA).
Dozens of people reportedly were murdered in post-election attacks on villages in Nigeria’s Benue State Wednesday, according to a diocesan official.In an exclusive intervi… […]
“What’s the Eucharist?” Kent Shi, a 25-year-old Harvard graduate student, asked that question when he attended eucharistic adoration for the first time. The answer put him on a path to conversion. / Julia Monaco | CNA
Cambridge, Massachusetts, Apr 16, 2022 / 09:03 am (CNA).
One convert’s journey to Catholicism began with an invitation to an ice-cream social.
Another says he instantly believed in the Real Presence the moment someone explained what the round object was that everyone was staring at during eucharistic adoration.
For a third, the poems of T.S. Eliot — and a seemingly random encounter with a priest on a public street — led to deeper questions about truth and faith.
Their paths differed but led them to the same destination: St. Paul’s Catholic Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where they are among 31 people set to be fully initiated into the Catholic Church during the Easter vigil Mass on Saturday, April 16.
That number of initiates is a record high for St. Paul’s, a nearly century-old Romanesque-style brick church whose bell tower looms over Harvard Square.
A scheduling backlog caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is partly responsible for the size of this year’s group of catechumens (non-baptized) and candidates (baptized non-Catholics.) But Father Patrick J. Fiorillo, the parochial vicar at St. Paul’s, believes there’s more to it than that.
“There’s definitely a significant segment of people who started thinking more deeply about their lives and faith during COVID-19,” Fiorillo said. “So, coming out of Covid has given them the occasion to take the next step and move forward.”
Fiorillo is the undergraduate chaplain for the Harvard Catholic Center, a chaplaincy based at St. Paul’s for undergraduate and graduate students at Harvard University and other academic institutions in the area. This year, 17 of the 31 initiates are Harvard students.
“Everybody assumes that, because this is the Harvard Catholic Center, that everybody here is very smart and therefore has a very highly intellectual orientation towards their faith,” Fiorillo told CNA.
“That is definitely true of some people. But I would say the majority are not here because of intellectually thinking their way into the faith. Some are. But the majority are just kind of ordinary life circumstances, just seeking, questioning the ways of the world, and just trying to get in touch with this desire on their heart for something more,” he said.
Fiorillo says welcoming converts into the Church at the Easter vigil is one of the highlights of his ministry.
“It’s an honor. It gives me hope just seeing all this new life and new faith here. So much in one place,” he said.
“When I tell other people about it, it gives them hope to hear that many young people are still converting to Catholicism, and they’re doing it in a place as secular as Cambridge.”
Prior to the Easter vigil, CNA spoke with five of St. Paul’s newest converts. Here are their stories:
‘This is what I’ve been looking for’
Katie Cabrera, a 19-year-old Harvard freshman, told CNA that she was excited to experience the “transformative power of Christ through his body and blood” at Mass for the first time at the Easter vigil.
A native of Dorchester, Massachusetts, she said she was baptized as a child and comes from a family of Dominican immigrants. Her father, who grew up in an extremely impoverished area, lacked a formal education, but always kept the traditions of the Catholic faith close to him in order to persevere in difficult times.
Her father’s love for her and his Catholic faith deeply inspired Cabrera, and served as an anchor for her faith throughout her life.
Growing up, however, Cabrera attended a non-denominational church with her mother. Because she felt the church’s teachings lacked an emphasis on God’s love and mercy, Cabrera eventually left.
“Even though I Ieft, I always knew that I believed in God,” Cabrera said. “So, I was at a place where I felt kind of lost, because I always had that faith, but I didn’t know what to do with it.”
“There was a void that existed in my heart,” says Katie Cabrera, a Harvard undergraduate student. She discovered what was missing when she started to get involved with the Harvard Catholic Center. Courtesy of Katie Cabrera
After she arrived at Harvard, she accepted a friend’s invitation to attend an ice-cream social at the Harvard Catholic Center — “and that was like, sort of, how it all started,” she told CNA.
Once she was added to the email list for the center’s events, she felt a “calling” that she “really wanted to officially become Catholic” after many difficult years without a faith community.
Catholic doctrine about the sacraments was no hurdle for Cabrera, as she credits Fiorillo with explaining the faith well.
“There was a void that existed in my heart,” she said. “As soon as Father Patrick started teaching about marriage and family, theology of the body, and the sacraments, I was like, ‘This is what I’ve been looking for my whole life.’”
‘What’s the Eucharist?’
“What is that thing on the thing?”
Kent Shi laughs when he recalls how perplexed he was the first time he attended eucharistic adoration at St. Mary’s of the Assumption in Cambridge.
Someone helpfully explained that what Shi was looking at was the Eucharist displayed inside a monstrance.
“What’s the Eucharist?” he wanted to know.
For many non-Catholics considering entering the Catholic Church, the Real Presence can be a major obstacle. But Kent Shi, a Harvard graduate student, says that once the Eucharist was explained to him, he instantly believed. Julia Monaco | CNA
For many non-Catholics considering entering the Catholic Church, the Real Presence can be a major obstacle.
Not Shi. He says that once the Eucharist was explained to him that day, he instantly believed.
Shi, 25, told CNA that he considered himself an agnostic for most of his life, meaning he neither believed nor disbelieved in God.
Between his first and second years as a graduate student in Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, however, he accepted Christ and started attending services at a Presbyterian church.
One day in the summer of 2021, a crucifix outside St. Paul’s that Shi says he “must have passed multiple times a week for months and never noticed” caught his eye, and deeply moved him.
Shortly after, he accepted a friend’s invitation to attend eucharistic adoration at St. Mary’s even though he “didn’t know what adoration meant.” Unaware of what he was about to walk into, Shi asked a friend what the dress code was for adoration. His friend replied, “Respectful.”
And so, respectfully dressed in a button-down shirt and slacks, Shi sat in the front row with his friend, only a few feet from the monstrance. That’s when the questions began.
It wasn’t long after that encounter that Shi began attending Mass at St. Paul’s and the parish’s RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults) program. Shi asked CNA readers to pray for him and his fellow RCIA classmates.
“There’s a lot of prodigal sons and daughters here, so we would very much appreciate that,” he said, “especially me.”
Poetry and art opened the door
For Loren Brown, choosing to attend a secular university like Harvard proved to be “providential.”
The 25-year-old junior from La Center, Washington, said he comes from a “lapsed” Catholic family and wasn’t baptized.
He didn’t think much about the faith until the spring semester of his freshman year, when, he says, Catholic friends of his “began to question my lack of commitment to faith.”
Later, when students were sent home to take classes virtually due to the pandemic, he had time to reflect and began to read some of the books they’d recommended to him. The poetry of T.S. Eliot (his favorite set of poems being “Four Quartets”) and the “Confessions” by St. Augustine, in particular, “pulled me towards the faith,” he said.
Brown describes his conversion as a “gradual process” which backed him into a “logical corner.” But a chance meeting with a priest also played a pivotal role.
One day in the summer of 2021 while walking back to his dormitory he encountered a man wearing a priestly collar outside St. Paul’s Church on busy Mount Auburn Street.
It was Father George Salzmann, O.S.F.S., graduate chaplain of the Harvard Catholic Center.
“He asked me how I was doing, what I was studying, and we immediately found a common interest in St. Augustine,” Brown told CNA.
“You know, there’s this great window of St. Augustine inside St. Paul’s and you should come see it,” Brown remembers the gregarious priest telling him. Salzmann wound up giving Brown a brief tour of the church, which was completed in 1923.
Harvard undergraduate student Loren Brown describes his conversion to Catholicism as a “gradual process” which backed him into a “logical corner.” But a chance meeting with a priest also played a pivotal role. Courtesy of Loren Brown
The next week, Brown found himself sitting in a pew for his first Sunday Mass at St. Paul’s. He hasn’t missed a Sunday since, a routine that ultimately led him to join the RCIA program that fall.
Brown says he now realizes that coming to Harvard was about more than majoring in education.
“What I wanted out of Harvard has completely changed,” he said. “Instead of an education that prepares me for a job or a career, I want one that forms me as a moral being and a human.”
‘I can’t do this alone. Please help me.’
Verena Kaynig-Fittkau, 42, is a German immigrant who came to the U.S. 10 years ago with her husband to do her post-doctoral research in biomedical image processing at Harvard’s engineering school.
The couple settled in Cambridge, where they had their first child. Two subsequent pregnancies ended in miscarriage, however. That second loss was overwhelming for Kaynig-Fittkau, who says she was raised as a “secular Lutheran” without any strong faith.
“It broke me and a lot of my pride and made me realize that I can’t do things by myself,” she told CNA.
She found herself on knees one Thanksgiving, pleading with God. “I can’t do this alone,” she said. “Please help me.”
She says God answered her prayer by introducing her to another mother, who she met at a playground. She was a Christian who later invited Kaynig-Fittkau to attend services at a Presbyterian church in Somerville, Massachusetts.
In that church, there was a lot of emphasis on “faith alone,” she said. But Kaynig-Fittkau, who now works for Adobe and is the mother of two girls, kept questioning if her faith was deep enough.
A YouTube video about the Eucharist by Father Mike Schmitz sent Verena Kaynig-Fittkau on a path toward converting to Catholicism. Courtesy of Verena Kaynig-Fittkau
Then one day she stumbled upon a YouTube video titled “The hour that will change your life,” in which Father Mike Schmitz, a Catholic priest from the Diocese of Duluth, Minnesota, known for his “Bible in a Year” podcast, speaks about the Eucharist.
Intrigued, she began watching similar videos by other Catholic speakers, including Father Casey Cole, O.F.M., Bishop Robert Barron, Matt Fradd, and Scott Hahn, each of whom drew her closer and closer to the Catholic faith.
Familiar with St. Paul’s from her days as a Harvard researcher and lecturer, she decided to attend Mass there one day, and made an appointment before she left to meet with Fiorillo.
When they met, Fiorillo answered all of her questions from what she calls “a list of Protestant problems with Catholicism.” She entered the RCIA program three weeks later.
Recalling her first experience attending eucharistic adoration, she said it felt “utterly weird” to be worshiping what she describes as “this golden sun.”
A conversation with a local Jesuit priest helped her better understand the Eucharist, however. Now she finds that spending time before the Blessed Sacrament is “amazing.”
“I am really, really, really excited for the Easter vigil,” Kaynig-Fittkau said. “I can’t wait, I have a big smile on my face just thinking about it.”
The rosary brought him peace
Another catechumen at St. Paul’s this year is Kyle Richard, 37, who lives in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Boston and works in a technology startup company downtown.
Although he grew up in a culturally Catholic hub in Louisiana, his parents left the Catholic faith and joined a Full Gospel church. Richard said he found the church “intimidating,” which led him eventually to leave Christianity altogether.
When Richard was in his mid-twenties, his father battled pancreatic cancer. Before he died, he expressed a wish to rejoin the Catholic Church. He never did confess his sins to a priest or receive the Anointing of the Sick, Richard recalls sadly. But years later, his non-believing son would remember his father’s yearning to return to the Church.
“I kind of filed that away for a while, but I never really let it go,” he said.
While Kyle Richard’s father was dying from pancreatic cancer, he returned to the Catholic faith, which made a lasting impression on his non-believing son. Courtesy of Kyle Richard
Initially, Richard moved even farther away from the Church. He said he became an atheist who thought that Christianity was simply “something that people used to just soothe themselves.”
Years later, while going through a divorce, he had a change of heart.
Feeling he ought to give Christianity “a fair shot,” he began saying the rosary in hopes of settling his anxiety. The prayer brought him peace, and became a gateway to the Catholic faith.
Before long, he was reading the Bible on the Vatican’s website, downloading prayer apps, and meditating on scripture.
A Google search brought him to St. Paul’s. Joining the RCIA program, he feels, was a continuation of his father’s expressed desire on his deathbed more than a decade ago.
“I think he would be proud, especially because he was born on April 16th and that is the date of the Easter vigil,” he said.
Cardinal George Pell at the annual Eucharistic procession at the Angelicum in Rome, May 13, 2021. / Daniel Ibáñez/CNA.
CNA Staff, May 13, 2021 / 12:00 pm (CNA).
Cardinal George Pell led a Eucharistic procession Thursday at the Angelicum in Rome…. […]
12 Comments
“Pope Francis to clergy abuse commission: ‘Our commitment must not wane’” Give me a break — what hypocrisy. His “commitment” never began except in words and only extended to protecting a mob of sexual abusers in Argentina and the Vatican. If there were real bishops and cardinals in the Church today, he would be in a cell in Castel Sant’ Angelo.
The Holy Father needs to make it clear that priest who abuse their position can expect no support from the Catholic Church in the way of housing and income, excluding legitimate pensions.
If a teacher abuses his position the school concerned will not be paying their salary and giving them accommodation for the rest of their lives.
Forgiveness is fine but its not a free pass to excuse wicked behaviour. Only the victims can grant true forgiveness. The Church can grant forgiveness in the confessional, following true repentance, but it cannot grant forgiveness on behalf of the victim, that is an arrogant perversity in the eyes of lots of victims.
We had a case in Scotland, 2013, when the most senior cleric was accused of abusing junior clerics. Even to the point of using the confessional to exploit these mens vulnerability’s, which is downright demonic.
He resigned of course but was housed in a very comfortable bungalow 20 miles across the English border, and at the Churches expense, for the rest of his life. Actually it wasn’t the Church’s money it was money donated by lay people, the Church only has money given to it by Catholic lay people.
Non Catholics, (and Catholics) look at examples like this and just laugh at the Church’s pious claims not to tolerate abuse.
It’s always a good exercise to shed clerical robes and put yourself in the shoes of the victims and listening to our Pope granting forgiveness to the person who has ruined your life. A salutary experience I can assure you.
Every time one points a finger at another, he points three back at himself. It holds true for all: the Pope, and both you an me. Perhaps, just perhaps from God’s point of view there’s not a lot of difference between our sins.
Nice words …. for a politician!
The actions being taken by the Vatican and many Bishops throughout the church are, in reality, token attempts to address an issue via behavioral restrictions, educational interventions, and policing-like policies rather than address the real issue:
MORAL DECAY!
Christ’s admonition to his disciples was to be spiritual leaders. They were to preach God’s Word as given to us in the Bible, point out sinful behavior, call people to repentance and spiritual conversion, and help establish a spiritual connection between them and God through the Sacraments.
Today, the church appears to be more focused on membership, contributions, popularity, and SJW issues rather than salvation through the conversion of sinners. Even Our Holy Father, Pope Francis, has declared that he is reluctant and fearful of calling a sin a sin because society may not “like” the Catholic Church. The current mantra of the Catholic Church has de-evolved to: “Let’s convert to the ways of the world, and forget about converting the world to God!”
The Church Hierarchy appears to be intent on seeking social acceptance and what they call “modernism” over the unpopular focus on Christ’s actual message. Their efforts appear more focused on the behavioral actions of their priests than the moral decay of their souls! They deny that it is our Moral Character that best controls our behavior rather than external rules, laws, and restrictions.
Even our seminaries are out of focus! Less time is spent promoting “spirituality”, living God’s Law of Morality, Truth, Justice, and Salvation than on the social and political correctness that needs to enter and control the church in order for the church to become modern and socially acceptable.
Reverence for God and His Laws, calling people to a meaningful relationship with God through right living, and encouraging a spiritual conversion witnessed in their daily behavior, have all been lost through an actively promoted advocacy for SJW action and involvement in the community.
Jesus Christ came to save sinners and call them to repentance! He never advocated for His disciples to become SJW warriors and change the political, social, or cultural standards within the world.
The Pope, and the entire church hierarchy, need to look at and address the increasing moral decay within the church, especially within the clergy, rather than spending their efforts in setting up external controls over them!
Let us pray as the people of God, and work at a grassroots level, to promote a spiritual conversion within our church. Let us call our clergy to right living and follow those priests who are faithful to Christ’s Message of salvation through repentance and conversion with a mighty “AMEN” …. in word and action!
Vos Estis Lux Mundi certainly has credibility if only in addressing those “performing sexual acts with a minor or a vulnerable person”. Although the preeminent issue was never attacked by this pontificate, which is the networking of adults, priests, bishops, and cardinals who are active homosexuals, or at least homosexual by predilection. It’s the establishment of these cabals by homosexuals as well as a pontificate that appoints homosexual prelates to executive positions at the Vatican that subdues Vos Estis’ effectiveness [“some victims have questioned the effectiveness of these reforms, even suggesting that a culture of silence persists and victims remain sidelined”]. An attempt was made in the US by then president of the USCCB Cardinal DiNardo and the result was his castigation and humiliation by Pope Francis, effectively replacing his authority with Francis’ accomplice Cardinal Cupich.
Our Church is subject to this continuous proclamation of excellent proposals while similarly operating undercover in the promotion of adult clergy homosexual relationships. Voices are starting to be heard in protest [imagine a Church in protest within itself because of egregious mismanagement] which is a good thing. The refreshing, wonderful, widespread refusal to follow Fiducia Supplicans a testament that the Catholic Church Ain’t Dead Yet.
Not only was Cardinal DiNardo castigated and humiliated, but the much earlier and significant warning apparently was ignored and then never even mentioned later while researching and drafting the 2002 Dallas Charter. (https://www.padreperegrino.org/2023/05/the-original-canceled-priests/.
The book: “The Homosexual Network: Private Lives and Public Policy” (The Free Congress Research and Education Foundation, published by the Devin Adair Co., Old Greenwich, Connecticut, 1982). In 1982 (!), and with encyclopedic and minutely detailed documentation and twelve appendices. From the above link, apparently Fr. Rueda was suspended sometime after 1982 for having authored the book.
Thanks for this input. Fr Enrique T Rueda, a Cuban priest assisting in the Diocese of Rochester NY was suspended by Bishop Matthew Clark 2011. Matthew Clark was a friendly person who was liberal or perhaps easy going, tacitly allowing innovations around the altar. I met him in Rome when he gave us seminarians circa 1977 a retreat. Likable, easy to converse with. He was appointed bishop of Rochester 1979. Apparently Fr Rueda must have lodged complaint about innovations to the liturgy to the bishop resulting in his suspension. Bishop Clark died recently 2023. My prayers were with him.
John Paul II and Benedict simply weren’t prepared to take on the entrenched homosexual networks [bishop Clark was not identified with that issue] revealed to the world by Fr Rueda. That effort would have required a Gregory the Great or Cyril of Alexandria. Had we by fortune of providence such a Roman pontiff we might not be where we are today.
Several years ago, I stopped listening to what the current occupier of Peter’s Chair says and instead look at what he does. He says the Church’s commitment to victims of clerical sexual abuse must not wane? Tell that to the victims of Rupnik, still a priest and living, if I’m not mistaken, in Francis’ own See. The most honest prayer I can muster for this man is that God will open his eyes before He closes them. This papacy has become a self-parody. It would be funny if it weren’t so tragic.
“Pope Francis to clergy abuse commission: ‘Our commitment must not wane’” Give me a break — what hypocrisy. His “commitment” never began except in words and only extended to protecting a mob of sexual abusers in Argentina and the Vatican. If there were real bishops and cardinals in the Church today, he would be in a cell in Castel Sant’ Angelo.
Dining room talk, not meant to be taken seriously, in light of serial resignations:
Peter Saunders, then Marie Collins, and mist recently Fr. Zollner:
https://www.bishop-accountability.org/2023/03/jesuit-sex-abuse-expert-hans-zollner-resigns-from-papal-commission-over-urgent-concerns/
Or, just ask “Reverend” Rupnik.
And Rupnik? Not so much. At least Pope Francis is consistent in his inconsistency. He passes judgement upon himself.
The Holy Father needs to make it clear that priest who abuse their position can expect no support from the Catholic Church in the way of housing and income, excluding legitimate pensions.
If a teacher abuses his position the school concerned will not be paying their salary and giving them accommodation for the rest of their lives.
Forgiveness is fine but its not a free pass to excuse wicked behaviour. Only the victims can grant true forgiveness. The Church can grant forgiveness in the confessional, following true repentance, but it cannot grant forgiveness on behalf of the victim, that is an arrogant perversity in the eyes of lots of victims.
We had a case in Scotland, 2013, when the most senior cleric was accused of abusing junior clerics. Even to the point of using the confessional to exploit these mens vulnerability’s, which is downright demonic.
He resigned of course but was housed in a very comfortable bungalow 20 miles across the English border, and at the Churches expense, for the rest of his life. Actually it wasn’t the Church’s money it was money donated by lay people, the Church only has money given to it by Catholic lay people.
Non Catholics, (and Catholics) look at examples like this and just laugh at the Church’s pious claims not to tolerate abuse.
It’s always a good exercise to shed clerical robes and put yourself in the shoes of the victims and listening to our Pope granting forgiveness to the person who has ruined your life. A salutary experience I can assure you.
Every time one points a finger at another, he points three back at himself. It holds true for all: the Pope, and both you an me. Perhaps, just perhaps from God’s point of view there’s not a lot of difference between our sins.
Nice words …. for a politician!
The actions being taken by the Vatican and many Bishops throughout the church are, in reality, token attempts to address an issue via behavioral restrictions, educational interventions, and policing-like policies rather than address the real issue:
MORAL DECAY!
Christ’s admonition to his disciples was to be spiritual leaders. They were to preach God’s Word as given to us in the Bible, point out sinful behavior, call people to repentance and spiritual conversion, and help establish a spiritual connection between them and God through the Sacraments.
Today, the church appears to be more focused on membership, contributions, popularity, and SJW issues rather than salvation through the conversion of sinners. Even Our Holy Father, Pope Francis, has declared that he is reluctant and fearful of calling a sin a sin because society may not “like” the Catholic Church. The current mantra of the Catholic Church has de-evolved to: “Let’s convert to the ways of the world, and forget about converting the world to God!”
The Church Hierarchy appears to be intent on seeking social acceptance and what they call “modernism” over the unpopular focus on Christ’s actual message. Their efforts appear more focused on the behavioral actions of their priests than the moral decay of their souls! They deny that it is our Moral Character that best controls our behavior rather than external rules, laws, and restrictions.
Even our seminaries are out of focus! Less time is spent promoting “spirituality”, living God’s Law of Morality, Truth, Justice, and Salvation than on the social and political correctness that needs to enter and control the church in order for the church to become modern and socially acceptable.
Reverence for God and His Laws, calling people to a meaningful relationship with God through right living, and encouraging a spiritual conversion witnessed in their daily behavior, have all been lost through an actively promoted advocacy for SJW action and involvement in the community.
Jesus Christ came to save sinners and call them to repentance! He never advocated for His disciples to become SJW warriors and change the political, social, or cultural standards within the world.
The Pope, and the entire church hierarchy, need to look at and address the increasing moral decay within the church, especially within the clergy, rather than spending their efforts in setting up external controls over them!
Let us pray as the people of God, and work at a grassroots level, to promote a spiritual conversion within our church. Let us call our clergy to right living and follow those priests who are faithful to Christ’s Message of salvation through repentance and conversion with a mighty “AMEN” …. in word and action!
Vos Estis Lux Mundi certainly has credibility if only in addressing those “performing sexual acts with a minor or a vulnerable person”. Although the preeminent issue was never attacked by this pontificate, which is the networking of adults, priests, bishops, and cardinals who are active homosexuals, or at least homosexual by predilection. It’s the establishment of these cabals by homosexuals as well as a pontificate that appoints homosexual prelates to executive positions at the Vatican that subdues Vos Estis’ effectiveness [“some victims have questioned the effectiveness of these reforms, even suggesting that a culture of silence persists and victims remain sidelined”]. An attempt was made in the US by then president of the USCCB Cardinal DiNardo and the result was his castigation and humiliation by Pope Francis, effectively replacing his authority with Francis’ accomplice Cardinal Cupich.
Our Church is subject to this continuous proclamation of excellent proposals while similarly operating undercover in the promotion of adult clergy homosexual relationships. Voices are starting to be heard in protest [imagine a Church in protest within itself because of egregious mismanagement] which is a good thing. The refreshing, wonderful, widespread refusal to follow Fiducia Supplicans a testament that the Catholic Church Ain’t Dead Yet.
Not only was Cardinal DiNardo castigated and humiliated, but the much earlier and significant warning apparently was ignored and then never even mentioned later while researching and drafting the 2002 Dallas Charter. (https://www.padreperegrino.org/2023/05/the-original-canceled-priests/.
The book: “The Homosexual Network: Private Lives and Public Policy” (The Free Congress Research and Education Foundation, published by the Devin Adair Co., Old Greenwich, Connecticut, 1982). In 1982 (!), and with encyclopedic and minutely detailed documentation and twelve appendices. From the above link, apparently Fr. Rueda was suspended sometime after 1982 for having authored the book.
Thanks for this input. Fr Enrique T Rueda, a Cuban priest assisting in the Diocese of Rochester NY was suspended by Bishop Matthew Clark 2011. Matthew Clark was a friendly person who was liberal or perhaps easy going, tacitly allowing innovations around the altar. I met him in Rome when he gave us seminarians circa 1977 a retreat. Likable, easy to converse with. He was appointed bishop of Rochester 1979. Apparently Fr Rueda must have lodged complaint about innovations to the liturgy to the bishop resulting in his suspension. Bishop Clark died recently 2023. My prayers were with him.
John Paul II and Benedict simply weren’t prepared to take on the entrenched homosexual networks [bishop Clark was not identified with that issue] revealed to the world by Fr Rueda. That effort would have required a Gregory the Great or Cyril of Alexandria. Had we by fortune of providence such a Roman pontiff we might not be where we are today.
Did he have a straight face when he uttered these words?
I’ll know that Francis is serious about this when James Martin SCH is laicized.
Several years ago, I stopped listening to what the current occupier of Peter’s Chair says and instead look at what he does. He says the Church’s commitment to victims of clerical sexual abuse must not wane? Tell that to the victims of Rupnik, still a priest and living, if I’m not mistaken, in Francis’ own See. The most honest prayer I can muster for this man is that God will open his eyes before He closes them. This papacy has become a self-parody. It would be funny if it weren’t so tragic.