Robert Mickens

In the past five or six decades, Catholic bishops in almost every part of the world have stood by, paralyzed, watching helplessly as the number and quality of priesthood candidates have continued to dwindle.

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We continue to hear of incidents that more than suggest that Catholics – and, in particular, their bishops – have learned very little from the clergy sex abuse crisis.

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When the history of Pope Francis’ time as Bishop of Rome is finally written, there is a good chance that the Year of Our Lord 2020 will be recorded as the most important of his entire pontificate. Some are wondering whether it may actually be his last.

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“The Church is 200 years behind the times.” (“La Chiesa è rimasta indietro di 200 anni”.)

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There’s a lot of commotion in and around the Vatican right now. It consists mostly of the angry rumblings of traditionalist Catholics who don’t particularly care for the way Pope Francis is leading the Church. Then there are the retaliatory rebukes of the pope’s most eager supporters. This has only increased the volume.

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“Xenophobia and aporophobia today are part of a populist mentality that leaves no sovereignty to the people. Xenophobia destroys the unity of a people, even that of the people of God.”No one who has been following the activities of Pope Francis these past six or so years will be surprised by this condemnation of distain for foreigners and the poor.

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Pope Francis is an equal opportunity offender. No matter where you place yourself along the Catholic Church’s broad spectrum – right, left or center; conservative or liberal; traditional or progressive – if you are not challenged and even disturbed by some of the things this pope says and does, then you are not paying attention.

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“Among all the world’s political and social leaders, Pope Francis stands increasingly alone as the most powerful force for global peace and stability.” Thus began the prelude to an earlier article titled, “Pope Francis or Steve Bannon. Catholics must choose.”

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How many cardinals does it take to help Pope Francis reform the Roman Curia? And how many years do they need to get the job done?Many Catholics – at least those who are hoping the pope can succeed in decentralizing ecclesial power away from the Vatican – have grown frustrated that after some six years there have been no definitive answers to those questions.

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Among all the world’s political and social leaders, Pope Francis stands increasingly alone as the most powerful force for global peace and stability. Thank God – and the cardinals who elected him in March 2013 – that the Argentine Jesuit is the current Bishop of Rome.

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Catholic bishops, including those in Vatican offices, are not exactly the most credible authorities on issues pertaining to sexuality these days. Few people would disagree with this, except – maybe – bishops themselves. And, of course, those who are trying hard to be named bishops. The lack of credibility on sexual morality is not just because of the hierarchs’ disastrous mishandling of the still-unfolding clergy sex abuse pandemic.

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“If you want to be priest, lie!”That was supposed to be a punch line in “Mass Appeal,” a comedy-drama written by American Catholic playwright Bill C. Davis. First staged in 1980, it was made into a film four years later.

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The first rays of dawn had barely begun to rise over a cloudy St. Peter’s Square and the Vatican. But at 6:20 a.m. on Sunday, May 5, Pope Francis was already on his way to Rome’s Fiumicino Airport where, 40 minutes later, he would embark on a two-hour flight to the Bulgarian capital of Sophia.

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Illustrative of the Church’s fear of revealing the truth is the case of Msgr. Joseph Punderson.  (more…)

“The Church is called to come out from itself and to go to the peripheries, not only those that are geographical, but also existential: those of the mystery of sin, of suffering, of injustice; those of ignorance and of the absence of faith; those of thought; those of every form of misery,” the then-Archbishop of Buenos Aires said.

He then pointed to a passage in the Book of Revelation where Jesus says: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.”

“Obviously, the text refers to the fact that he stands outside the door and knocks to come in,” the future pope said. “But at times I think Jesus may be knocking from the inside, so we will let him out.”

It is an image that Francis has used to warn against the Church becoming (or remaining) “self-referential” and inwardly focused. He rightly believes that a Church turned in on itself and obsessed with internal problems is severely impeded from carrying out its true mission.

But there are a number of critical issues pertaining to the Household of God — particularly in its Roman chambers — that cannot be ignored or avoided.

They have been a cause of scandal for a great many and a wound to all. One of them is sexual abuse by Catholic priests and the inadequate way the hierarchy — especially the Vatican and the popes — have responded to this sinful and criminal behavior.

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There is no question that Francis is authentic — He does not demand of others what he does not demand of himself.  (more…)

The question is did they all decide to jump together or were they pushed?

It can be called nothing less than cataclysmic. The Catholic bishops of an entire national hierarchy have offered to step down for their negligence in handling cases of alleged clergy sex abuse of minors. (more…)

The biggest error Catholic leaders have made regarding the church’s response to priests abusing children has been the exclusion of women leading the policy-making and reform process. (more…)

In the space of a week, Pope Francis reduced the responsibilities of Cardinal George Pell and rebuffed an initiative by Cardinal Robert Sarah. …

Pope Francis [also] did a pretty good number on Australian Cardinal George Pell by once more drastically reducing his powers as prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy (SFE).

The pope issued a new “motu proprio” last Saturday that essentially reverses a 2014 law that had given Pell’s office managing control over the Holy See’s real estate and investments portfolios. (more…)

The Holy See’s abrupt suspension this week of anexternal audit of all its financial operations by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is being described by almost everyone as the Vatican old guard’s latest attempt to derail Pope Francis’ reforms.

This narrative pits “a powerful Italian bureaucracy resistant to greater transparency” (including the Cardinal Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin) against Australian Cardinal George Pell, the controversial figure the pope handpicked two years ago to lead the newly instituted Secretariat for the Economy.

The problem with this explanation is that it is far too simplistic and, in other important ways, more than a bit off the mark. Because if it were true it would mean Pope Francis himself is trying to thwart efforts at transparency or, at the very least, has been duped or co-opted by those who are.

In fact, the pope approved the letters that Cardinal Parolin and his deputy in charge of internal Church affairs, Archbishop Angelo Becciu, sent out this week to all Vatican departments to inform them that the PwC audit has been “suspended immediately.”

Andrea Tornielli of La Stampa points out that the concern was not with PwC, but with the manner in which Cardinal Pell and his deputy, Danny Casey, forged the three-year deal with the global accounting firm.

“The suspension resulted from three possible irregularities in the contract signing process and the missing consultations required by the statutes approved by the pope,” wrote the veteran Vatican analyst this week.

Cardinal Pell’s department – contrary to what he had boasted before its final statutes were published last year – does not report directly to the pope. It actually takes its marching orders from a 15-member Council for the Economy, composed of eight cardinals and seven laymen; chaired by German Cardinal Reinhard Marx.

Yes, this council approved the PwC audit last December. Technically, the council actually ordered the audit, because it is the only office (except the pope himself) with the authority to do so.

But according to Tornielli some of the council’s members complained that Cardinal Pell’s office then kept them in the dark over the terms of the contract with PwC when it should have first sought the council’s approval of those terms.

Some people also did not seem amused that the Australian signed the $3 million agreement on behalf of the Vatican as “manager of the Holy See.”

All this was seen by some officials in the Secretariat of State as just one more instance of Cardinal Pell going it alone, bypassing proper channels and – ironically, given the task he claims to be trying to achieve – acting in a less than transparent manner.

But concerns over the former Archbishop of Sydney’s activities at the Vatican go much deeper than merely his role in bringing forth financial reforms.

It is in the area of Church finance and management, and this small area alone, that it can be said that Cardinal Pell is fully on board with Pope Francis’ more important project of overall Church reform. In fact, he is part of a conservative group of cardinals that backed the losing candidate (believed to have been Angelo Scola, then Marc Ouellet) at the last conclave.

This group, now expanded to include other bishops, has been less than enthusiastic about the pope’s broader Church reforms, evidenced especially by the objections it has raised to the way he led the last two gatherings of the Synod of Bishops. The group has become a respectful but firm opposition that seems to be waiting out what its members hope will be a short pontificate.

Pope Francis surprised a lot of people two years ago when he chose George Pell to lead the Secretariat for the Economy. It appeared then to be a move to give his conclave opponents a share in Vatican governance, but in an area he has not made his top priority.

Francis wants a clean hands operation when it comes to money. No doubt about it. But efforts to achieve this pale in significance to the more urgent and difficult reforms that are required to pull the entire Church out of the deep hole into which his last two predecessors have driven it.

His decision to temporarily halt the PwC audit, via the two letters this week from the Secretariat of State, looks like another message to Cardinal Pell and anyone else who thinks they can set up a powerbase of opposition.

Cardinal Pell turns 75 in June. That’s the age when bishops, including Vatican officials, submit their resignations. Pope Francis will probably not accept it immediately, though he is likely to do so before the cardinal completes the initial five-year term that is the norm for a position like his. That would not be until 2019.

The 79-year-old pope has shown a lot of patience and restraint with prelates resistant to the ongoing change of mentality he is bringing to the Church. But he will not tolerate them playing him or his closest aides as fools.

Keep your eye on the calendar.

This article first appeared in Global Pulse on 22 April 2016.

It has been known for quite some time that a number of cardinals and bishops, both in Rome and abroad, are – to put it mildly – uncomfortable with the way Pope Francis’ pontificate is unfolding.

Well, this week it all spilled out into the open when it was revealed that several cardinals – including three top Vatican officials (Cardinals Pell, Müller and Sarah) – wrote a letter to the Pope that basically criticized the way he is running the Synod of Bishops.

One should be magnanimous and give these birds credit for being honest with the Pope and telling him their concerns. (They were not happy that the public found out, which is another story.) But one should also be aware that, at least some of these prelates, are active ringleaders of an opposition to Francis.

As the Vatican II-minded theologian, Enzo Bianchi, noted this week in the Rome daily, La Repubblica, they have at times waged a fierce battle.

Bianchi, who is founder and prior of the Ecumenical Monastery of Bose in Northern Italy, said, “What’s at play here is not Catholic doctrine on the indissolubility of marriage… No, it’s the pastoral dimension, his attitude towards those who make mistakes and towards contemporary society.”

Then he thundered: “Let’s be clear – what scandalizes them is mercy!”

Who knows if Pope Francis read that article on Wednesday after saying his morning prayers and before heading to his two-pronged general audience in the Paul VI Hall (for several hundred sick and handicapped people) and St Peter’s Square (for the rest of the visitors)?

But it did not seem to be a coincidence that, as he began to read his prepared remarks to the tens of thousands of people in the square, he put down his pages and said, “Before beginning this catechesis I would like, in the name of the Church, to ask your forgiveness for the scandals that have occurred recently both in Rome and in the Vatican. I ask your forgiveness.”

To which scandals was he referring?

There have been a few in the last several weeks – like the Polish monsignor and former Vatican official who “came out” and admitted to being in a gay relationship. And there was the former nuncio and defrocked archbishop, also Polish, who died this past summer while awaiting trial for sexually abusing adolescent boys.

Obviously, the Pope was not referring to the scandal of mercy. But he could have had in mind the scandalous behavior of those who, in these days, are leading the opposition to his mission of mercy.

 

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Pope Francis does not seem to be overly nervous about those bishops who are not entirely “on message” – that is, those who don’t agree with him on everything or do not share his style of episcopal ministry.

And nor should he be.

He is the first to say – indeed, to promote the idea – that we can accommodate a great deal of diversity within the Catholic community without being worried that it will diminish Church unity.

Still, it is hard to understand how any pope could tolerate blatant opposition to him coming from within the very structure that is supposed to be, principally, at his service – that is, the Roman Curia.

The titular bishops or emeritus diocesan ordinaries that work in Vatican offices are already a bit of an anomaly. They are, in effect, bishops without a people. Their main task should be to support the Bishop of Rome in his universal ministry, not put up obstacles.

There have been uncooperative Curia prelates in every pontificate, but former popes usually kicked them upstairs or sent them somewhere else to neutralize them and thwart their negative influence. Mostly these were officials inherited from their predecessor.

Surprisingly, Pope Francis has not done this, except on very few occasions.

The transfer of the conservative Cardinal Mauro Piacenza from the Congregation for Clergy to the Vatican’s tribunal for the internal forum and indulgences is one example. His removal of Cardinal Raymond Burke as head of the Church’s supreme court, sending him to be the glorified chaplain and cardinal-protector of the Knights of Malta, is another.

But most everyone else Francis found on the upper rungs of the Curia hierarchy when he arrived have kept their jobs.

Part of the reason is that the man who put them there – Benedict XVI – is still around and living in the Vatican Gardens. The ex-pope saddled Francis with people like Gerhard Müller (head of the doctrinal office) and Georg Gänswein (prefect of the pontifical household) after he had already decided (but before announcing) that he was going to resign the papacy.

Francis could have dismissed both of them. Instead, he made one of them a cardinal and kept them both in their jobs. More difficult to understand is why he appointed Cardinal Robert Sarah head of the Congregation for Divine Worship.

None of the three are enthusiastic supporters of the general and overall thrust of this pontificate. They have, at various times, publicly voiced concern over the direction it has taken. More serious, however, is what is happening behind the scenes.

Unfortunately, as long as the retired man in white is still in Rome they won’t be going anywhere.

 

Robert Mickens is a regular contributor with his ‘Letter from Rome’ in Global Pulse. This weekly newsletter was published on October 16, 2015.

No Australian bishop has ever assumed such high rank in the Catholic Church as Cardinal George Pell, who eight months ago became head of the Vatican’s newly created “finance ministry” or Secretariat for the Economy.

For the 73-year-old native of Ballarat, a city about 100 kms west of Melbourne, this is but the latest rung on what has been a steady and seemingly unstoppable rise up the Church’s hierarchical ladder, a climb that began in the pontificate of John Paul II and continued under Benedict XVI. Cardinal Pell’s ascent to key positions of leadership and his attainment of real ecclesiastical power have vexed his critics, including a good number of fellow bishops, as much as they have heartened his fans and allies, many of them so-called “traditionalists” who are devotees of the pre-Vatican II Mass in Latin.

But neither group could have imagined that “Big George” – as they, by turns, call him affectionately or mockingly – would continue to be a major player in the era of Francis. That’s because this Pope’s style and blueprint for reform (just read his apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium) seem at times to be as distant from Pell’s view of the Church as the 16,000 km that separate Rome from Sydney. Of course, the cardinal was archbishop in that Australian city from 2001 until last February when he got his prestigious new Vatican post.

Just how prestigious? As head of the Secretariat of the Economy he has wide-sweeping authority over all the financial and administrative activities of the Holy See and Vatican City, including the monitoring of hiring and firing procedures. Yes this is big. In fact, the establishment of this new department was the most radical structural change to the Roman Curia in nearly 50 years.

And it is widely assumed that Pope Francis chose Pell to oversee this fledgling office because of his reputation as a blunt-speaking and no-nonsense administrator, one that’s not afraid to knock heads to get what he wants. While some might call this “determination”, others do not hesitate to use the word “ruthlessness”. But they all agree that the imposing cardinal, someone who’s not afraid to call a spade a shovel, remains unflinching in the face of criticism.

That will be a useful tool in his skill set for the gargantuan and thankless task that lies before him – reforming and reordering a holy mess that is likely to make him (and his team) among the most unpopular, perhaps even despised people in the Vatican. Some believe he’s been asked to do the impossible. But almost all concur that if there is any “outsider” that can pull it off (and only an outsider could) that person is George Pell. After decades of notorious papal appointments to top Vatican jobs, ranging from mediocre to disastrous, Pope Francis’ decision to bring Sydney to Rome should be seen as a masterstroke of both pragmatism and shrewdness.

Actually, the appointment was not as surprising as it might have been. It was almost underwhelming in comparison to the bigger shock that came nearly a year earlier when the Pope named Pell an original member of his council of eight (now nine) cardinal-advisors to help him govern the worldwide Church and reform the Roman Curia. The men he chose for that council immediately appeared to be people who likely voted for him in the conclave, as well as those who more or less shared his vision of Church and agenda for reform. All, it would seem, except Cardinal Pell, whose papal candidate is believed to have been Cardinal Angelo Scola of Milan.

Though Pell was one of the loudest voices before the conclave to demand Roman Curia reform, his focus was more on cleaning up the financial and administrative shenanigans widely blamed on certain Italian-dominated power cliques (from which Scola was excluded). In the last several months, however, he has demonstrated that on issues of faith and morals, especially how the Church explains and applies its teaching in these areas, he is not exactly on the same page as the pope.

That became clear during the recent synod when Cardinal Pell criticized bishops and cardinals for doing exactly one of the things Francis had asked them to do – discuss and propose ways through which the Church might help reach out to alienated Catholics, including the divorced and remarried, cohabitating couples, unwed mothers, gays and others. He was also one of about a dozen cardinals who tried to stop discussion on how to possibly readmit remarried divorcees to communion, an issue the Pope had specially commissioned Cardinal Walter Kasper to help the bishops explore. He wrote the preface to a book that attempts to eviscerate Kasper’s arguments.

Two days after the conclave Cardinal Pell was asked in a video interview if he had yet had a chance to speak the newly elected Pope Francis. “I have already spoken to him and I promised him my complete loyalty,” he said. It’s not clear why he felt he had to underline this since part of the conclave ritual is that all the cardinals individually pledge their allegiance to the new pope in the Sistine Chapel shortly after his election.

It’s even less clear how he estimates Francis 19 months into the pontificate. One gets the impression that he and many other cardinals, whether they voted for him or not, see Francis today as somebody very different from the man they thought was elected in March 2013. “He is doing a marvelous job making the financial reforms,” Cardinal Pell reportedly said last week. Was it meant to be ironic? Because, evidently, it was the highest compliment he paid Francis in a homily last Saturday to a group of Tridentine Mass enthusiasts on pilgrimage to Rome. At least according to a report by Catholic News Service (CNS). A secretary actually read the cardinal’s sermon at a Mass he was supposed to celebrate. But at the last minute he did not show up because of a sudden bout of bronchitis. The full text of his homily was not immediately published, but according to CNS he also wrote, “Pope Francis is the 266th pope and history has seen 37 false or antipopes. The story of the popes is stranger than fiction. We have one of the more unusual popes in history, enjoying almost unprecedented popularity.” He then went to say: “The church is not built on the rock of Peter’s faith, but on Peter himself, despite his faults and failings.”

What is one to make of these utterances? Cardinal Pell apparently sent an accompanying note to the Old Rite group, according to CNS, ensuring them that illness was the only reason he could not attend their Mass. Yet apparently another head of a Roman Curia office, Cardinal Robert Sarah of “Cor Unum”, also cancelled an event with the same group also at the last minute. Did the Pope or his Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, express displeasure with the two close papal aides for showing him less than “complete loyalty”?

Cardinal Pell’s remark about the pope’s “marvelous” work in the area of financial reform is, of course, largely self-serving. And it conveniently ignores the areas of reform that Francis, but perhaps not so much the cardinal, sees as much more essential – the development of the Synod of Bishops and the elaboration of “genuine doctrinal authority” for episcopal conferences as an integral part of Church governance; the re-examination of “certain customs”, “rules” and “precepts”; the promotion of “different currents of thought” in theology rather than a “monolithic body of doctrine guarded by all and leaving no room for nuances”; and a “conversion” of the papacy for a better exercise of the “primacy” in a way more faithful to the will of Christ. You can find it all in Evangelii Gaudium.

Pope Francis has not appointed Cardinal Pell to head any office or commission that will deal specifically with these issues. Of course, as a bishop he has a voice in the synod. At least he did in the most recent assembly and will most likely in the next one, too. But his first priority is reorganizing the Vatican’s financial disorder. It’s a challenge that should command his undivided attention.

This article is a taste of what Robert Mickens will be writing from ‘Global Pulse’. He has been a regular commentator on the Vatican. Subscriptions for ‘Global Pulse’ from November 1, will be available shortly.

 

As I was saying last time, before I was interrupted, Pope Francis is facing resistance to the fresh air and change of ethos he’s trying to bring about inside the Church. And those with eyes to see can detect this opposition especially among the current crop of seminarians and younger priests, as well as a number of bishops.

“The resistance is coming from those that don’t want to change,” says Professor Andrea Riccardi, founder of the Sant’Egidio Community here in Rome. In an interview some months ago, he pointed out that many regular folks all over the world were still enjoying a “honeymoon” with Papa Francesco. And he predicted that it would not wane quickly because it’s “much more substantial” than a mere “media phenomenon”.

Precisely because there is substance to changes the 77-year-old Jesuit Pope is trying to inculcate in the Church, especially his effort to wipe out clericalism, resistance to him has grown. However, it is not fashionable or favourable (especially to one’s career) for clerics to go around bashing the Bishop of Rome. So they have to find another target.

This is exactly what happened during Benedict XVI’s pontificate when the former pope’s enemies chose his Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone SDB, as their surrogate punching bag.

Those hostile to Pope Francis and how he’s governing the Vatican and the Universal Church have affixed the bull’s eye on the backs of any number of people close to him. For example, in the first weeks of his papal ministry they tried to dig up dirt on some of Papa Bergoglio’s closest aides, only to see their poisonous arrows deflected by a shrewd and self-composed man who will not cave in to blackmail.

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Cardinal Walter Kasper is the latest and most prominent among those taking a hit for Pope Francis.

His sin, in the eyes of certain defenders of Church orthodoxy, was that he dared to offer possible ways of allowing divorced and remarried Catholics to receive Holy Communion. He did this last February in a major address to all the cardinals. The Pope asked him to.

But negative reaction to Kasper’s proposals (later published as a book) was swift and it continues. Up to 10 cardinals with conservative leanings have publically denounced his views; five of them piled together criticisms in their own book. More bishops will probably start openly espousing one of the two sides over the next two years as the Synod of Bishops deals with issues regarding the family.

Bishop Johan Bonny of Antwerp, a former official at the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, has so far offered the most significant support of the Kasper position. In a 22-page paper he argued for carefully drafting a new approach to marriage and family life that would be marked by mercy, respect for individual conscience and even doctrinal developments. Like the cardinal, he has infuriated the self-styled guardians of Truth who loudly proclaim that Pope Francis does not support the Kasper-Bonny proposals, but who, privately, are not quite sure.

Among them is group of 48 intellectuals, mostly Catholics known to be aligned with conservative causes, who recently wrote an open letter to the Pope and the Synod. Included was an appeal to step up opposition to divorce and to reject any proposal that might threaten the indissolubility of marriage.

Can we assume that all the signatories are paradigms of the marriage model they want the Church to insist upon for others and not like the unmerciful servant in the Gospel (Mt 18, 21-35)? ?

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It is extremely unusual to have a lengthy vacancy at the top rung of a major Vatican office, especially when it’s a Roman Congregation. Normally when the pope accepts the resignation of a prefect or assigns him to another post, he appoints a successor within a matter of days. Even more often he does it immediately. So what is going on with the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments (CDWDS)?

Spanish Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera, soon to be 69, headed the office since late 2008. But on August 28 Pope Francis named him Archbishop of Valencia. That was almost five weeks ago. And still there is no word on who will take over at Divine Worship.

During nearly six years in that office Cardinal Cañizares helped to forward Benedict XVI’s liturgical preferences and style. Those sympathetic to his efforts claimed his appointment to Valencia was part of Francis’ purge of the former pope’s curia. But that’s not quite correct. The cardinal had actually asked Benedict to send him back to Spain. He had hoped to be named Archbishop of Madrid, head of the Church in the nation’s capital. Instead, Papa Francesco sent him to Valencia, Cañizares’ fourth diocese and the one for which he was ordained a priest in 1970.

What is puzzling is why it has taken so long for Pope Francis to fill the vacancy he left at Divine Worship. It seems a strange logic, but perhaps the Pope is waiting until Saturday after the cardinal is officially installed in his new diocese. Or it may be that there is a tug of war in the Curia over the appointment. In any case, the delay has people from varying liturgical leanings holding their breath.

This article is a taste of what Robert Mickens will be writing from ‘Global Pulse’.  He has been a regular commentator on the Vatican.