George Weigel " bluntly reminded the media that the pope is not a monarch, the bishops are not "branch managers," that he can appoint them but, realistically, he can't dump them for incompetence or malfeasance."
Weigel's answers: "The Vatican communications debacle has to end" and the Church must find away to dump bad bishops, which he called
...the single biggest management problem in the church today... and the single biggest fix that can affect the life of the Church.
John Allen's, who has covered the Vatican for the National Catholic Reporter, believes: "The papacy is adrift and has been for a long time...(It is) a papacy defined by its train wrecks."
"Allen quoted a favorite Italian newspaper headline printed after the Vatican took 19 days to debunk a false rumor: "The Vatican denies everything. No one believes it.'"
Bridget Mary's Reflection:
True words, indeed, from Vatican observer John Allen, Benedict's papacy has been defined by its "train wrecks". It is not just about the Vatican's faulty communications with the media, Better PR is not going to solve the Vatican's crisis. Immediate structural reform is needed. Nor can we wait t for a few hundred years until the Curia gets it.. The Curia needs to deal with the sex abuse crisis now, no more blaming the devil roaming the Vatican's halls or the media for covering the world wide debacle. It is time to open the windows again and put in place new structures of accountability and new leadership including women and men who will bring reform to our beloved church Remove the bishops who covered-up criminal sexual abuse. Drain the swamp. Catholics need a renewed priestly ministry now, including women priests, in a people-empowered, more accountable and transparent, church.
You liberals write history the way you want to view it. Let me do a little spin of my own. I say that most of the child-abusing pedophile priests and bishops were ordained during the papacies of Popes John XXIII and Paul VI. But you liberals don't want that stain upon your perceived promoters of progressive Catholicism; you just want to keep railing a good and holy leader in Pope Benedict because he's viewed as theologically "conservative" by you schismatics.
ReplyDeletePope Benedict has had a solid papacy. From Summorum Pontificium, to his excellent writings on the faith, to his amazing appointments to the episcopacy.
Mike --
ReplyDeleteYou lose credibility with that statement about most pedophilia occurred during the papacies of John XXIII and Paul VI. Pedophilia has been around for hundreds of years. There is nothing new about it.
You did not mention the papacy of JPII. That reign was notorious for cover-ups, moving priests around, and giving bishops and cardinals cushy promotions.
In addition, there is plenty of evidence that Benedict (as Cardinal Ratzinger) knew well about the cover-ups.