Pope Francis at last moment orders the American bishops not to vote on the (admittedly weak) proposals about sexual abuse (Two Steps Back)
Pope Francis has put Archbishop Scicluna in charge of sexual abuse matters in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (One-Half Step Forward)
Pope Francis calls February meeting on all heads of bishops’ conferences to discuss sexual abuse (Forward? Backward?)
Francis forbade the American bishops to vote on weak proposals for a code of ethics for bishops and for a lay investigative body to take allegations against bishops, Did Francis thinks these proposals were too weak or too strong?
Scicluna in an honest man. He investigated Maclel and brought the truth to Pope Benedict. He also investigated Chile and Francis acted on the findings. So his appointment is a good sign. But what will he be allowed to do and what will Francis do with the information that Scicluna gives him?
What will the February meeting of bishops from all over the world decide to do? Many bishops in the Third World deny that there is any serious problem with sexual abuse in their countries. So it in unlikely that they will vote for any strong measures, unless Francis insist on them.
Is Francis engaged in delaying tactics, hoping that publicity and anger will evaporate and that he can get on with the serious business of dealing with the environment? Or is he fumbling and erratic? Or does he basically not care about the Church in the United States, which is only 3% of the world’s Catholics?
Stay tuned.
The recent news that Card. Cupich will be one of the three members of the coordinating committee for the February get-together, sounds like the equivalent of Don Vito Corleone being appointed to an Anti-Racketeering Federal Task Force.