Pope Francis on 60 Minutes this Sunday by Matthew Fox, Comment by Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWP

The Risen Christ appeared first to Mary Magdalene and called her to be the Apostle to the Apostles, so too today, women are being called to Catholic priesthood to proclaim the good news of God’s all -embracing , inclusive love and to live Gospel equality now. 

Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP arcwp.org

A recent article in the National Catholic Reporter (a mildly progressive lay-run Catholic newspaper) reported that Pope Francis clearly worries about America. The U.S. church has ‘a very strong reactionary attitude,’ he told a group of Jesuits last year. ‘Being backward-looking is useless.’* Pope Francis is being interviewed by an American woman journalist on 60 Minutes this Sunday. It will be interesting to see how he addresses the American church’s “very strong reactionary attitude.” Some ecclesial fur might be flying. “Pope Francis speaks to Norah O’Donnell about Ukraine, church scandals, migrant crisis.” CBS Mornings It is no secret why the Pope himself can complain that the American church appears “backward-looking” and “useless.” The two popes before him, reigning for 34 years, went out of their way to elevate the influence of Opus Dei and its fascist founder Escriva, for whom they changed the rules to rush through the quickest canonization in history. They also picked young bishops who were from the fascist wing of the church— one of whom, an Opus Dei member, was elected head of the American Catholic Bishops organization. Such prelates are out of tune with Pope Francis. “40th anniversary of the assassination of St Oscar Romero.” Vatican News – English The previous Vatican’s opposition to Archbishop (now Saint) Oscar Romero i s well documented, and of course they made it a priority to dismantle liberation theology and base communities throughout South America. They “killed theology” in Europe, a European theologian told me, and silenced over 108 theologians worldwide (myself included) whom I name in my book, The Pope’s War. They replaced it with a sentimental theology of which the converse side is, as Carl Jung observes, always violence. Super-right Catholics, with their super-right rich capitalist financial supporters, such as the founder of Domino’s Pizza, are out of synch with the current pope also. Busy sponsoring events like a $1000-a-plate-dinner at Mar-a-Lago called “Catholic Prayer for Trump,” they are eager as beavers to embrace  Donald Trump, along with conspiracy theories.  As with politics, religion too is often primed to “Follow the money.”