Francis: The pope of hope

Pope Francis ... the smiling pope

By Bob Gaydos

Reflecting on the anger, bitterness and violence that punctuated much of the year just past, I resolved to start the new year with acknowledgment of some positive development. Some sign of hope, as it were. I found it in, of all places, the Catholic Church. Or rather, the Vatican.

Actually, to be specific, in the Pope.

         Pope Francis, the people’s pope, has been a revelation and a one-man revolution within an organization

that has been entrenched in dogma and shielded by ceremony for centuries.

Since his surprise election to the papacy nearly two years ago,

the Argentinian prelate has seemed to revel in speaking and acting like a,

well, like a man of God. A least what my definition of such a person would be:

Humble, unassuming, honest, approachable, compassionate, non-

judgmental, empathetic and realistic.

         Francis, the 266th pope, brought a positive note to the end of a brutally

negative 2014 by: (1) Convincing President Obama and Cuban President Raul

Castro to reestablish normal diplomatic relations between the United States and

Cuba, ending more than 50 years of pretending they weren’t neighbors; (2)

announcing that the Catholic Church would be committed to fighting global

warming. Diplomacy and science have not exactly been prominent issues for

popes for some time.

        These actions came at the end of a year in which Francis consistently and

passionately criticized the culture of greed that has claimed much of the planet,

resulting in the very rich getting even richer and much of the rest of the

population struggling to simply exist. “The excluded are still waiting’” he has

said of the false promise of “trickle-down” economics.

To top it off, in case no one was paying attention, Francis, who has shunned

many of the papal trappings, used his Christmas address to the cardinals at the

Vatican to scold them for their personal ambition, pettiness and attitude of

superiority to the people they, in fact, are sworn to serve. In other words, time

to change your focus, fellas.

Along the way, indicating that the Catholic Church is not, as some

have suggested, totally anti-science, he has declared that the theories of evolution

and the Big Bang are, indeed, real, and can co-exist with the Church’s teaching

of Creation. “God is not a magician with a magic wand,” he has said.

          He has also encouraged cardinals to be less-obsessed with birth control

and homosexualty (“Who am I to judge?”) and more committed to helping the

world’s poor. And he has moved decisively to remove more of the stain of sexual

abuse by priests that has been the most dominant issue associated with

the Church for several decades.

All of this has angered conservative Catholics and especially conservative

politicians who have counted on implicit papal endorsement for their views

(especially on social issues) for many years. Suddenly, the pope’s infallibility

on how we should treat each other and the planet we share is open to, not just

question, but outright challenge. Fox News is apoplectic.

So be it. As a leader with no armies, the Roman Catholic pope

can sway millions simply with his words and actions. Yes, the church is wealthy.

Yes, it has political influence. Yes, it has an investment in repairing its soiled

image and attracting new followers to replace those who left it because of the

priest sexual abuse scandal.

        Still, whatever one’s religious views, I believe that sometimes a person comes

along and takes everyone by surprise by doing the unexpected. In Francis’ case,

by acting like a humble servant of his God, rather than like the exalted ruler of

some chosen group of people. Given the symbolic power of the position, this

is huge.

I am sure the former cardinal from Argentina -- a supposedly safe,

compromise choice -- has many cardinals shaking their heads today and

wondering, “Tell me again; why did we vote for him?”

        And that may be the most positive thing of all about Pope Francis. He

has begun a discussion within the Vatican, within the Catholic Church and, by

his involvement in global issues, throughout the world, on what our role is in

relation to each other. It may be a discussion that will reveal the hypocrisy

and greed that permeate today’s society. Perhaps it will even

answer the question of what it means to be thy brother’s keeper.  

That’s pretty hopeful stuff to me.

bobgaydos.blogspot.com

Years later, the pain of the Church sex scandal remains

By Bob Gaydos

A protest on Mothers Day, 2002.
Reuters photo 

This is going to be personal. Not just online blog personal, but in your gut, or should I say, in my gut personal. If you’re looking for politics, you won’t find it here. Our political institutions are a sham, self-serving and deceitful. This is about that other major institution you’re not supposed to talk about at polite dinner parties: religion.
` Well, one religion, Catholicism. The one I was born into and eventually left. My intent here is not to offend or anger anyone who practices the faith or to challenge its teachings. In a sense, it’s not really about Catholicism at all. As religions go, I think it’s as good as any other if it fulfills one’s spiritual needs.
This is really about the people -- the men -- who control the Roman Catholic Church and who are, I believe, supposed to be spiritual role models. Instead, like politicians, many Church leaders, I also believe, are largely self-serving and deceitful. Driven by ego. Unlike politicians, they have the benefit of confessing their sins to each other and being forgiven.
This uncomfortable feeling about some of the good fathers of the Roman Catholic Church is not new. It has, however, been dormant. It was awakened with suddenness and surprising force for me recently as I read a story in the Middletown (N.Y.) Times Herald-Record written by my colleague, Steve Israel. It concerned two predators who had sexually abused many young boys while serving as Roman Catholic priests in local parishes in the mid-Hudson.
Steve had written about these men years ago when, no thanks to the Church, their behavior became public knowledge. Likewise, as editorial page editor of The Record at the time, I had written opinions about the priests and the manner in which the Church mishandled their cases. Yet as I read Steve’s recent article (prompted by the impending sentencing of Penn State sex predator Jerry Sandusky), I found my eyes welling up with tears and feeling a profound sadness and anger bordering on rage. I felt personally offended.
The sadness was for the victims and their families who, as they told Steve, must carry the hurt and humiliation, the angry memories, with them every day of their lives.
The rage was not for Edward Pipala or Francis Stinner, the local priests who betrayed their positions of trust. They are what they are. Pray for them, or not, as you choose. Rather, it was for their superiors, those bishops. monsignors and cardinals who knew what the priests were, what they had done, what they would continue to do if not stopped, and still let them do it, for no reason other than to protect the name of the Roman Catholic Church and, not so coincidentally, their positions of influence within it.
Thanks to someone’s merciful god, Pipala, Stinner, and dozens of other sexual predators in the priesthood around the globe, were eventually exposed. Some, including Pipala, served prison time. But this only happened after many years of the church paying millions of dollars in hush money to victims for their promise to remain silent, of moving predatory priests from one parish to another, often to positions that involved mentoring teenaged boys, and of refusing to report the sexual assaults as crimes to local police. Many years, many more victims. And many denials by Church spokesmen.
Where, in any testament or gospel or papal edict -- never mind universal, common decency -- is such collusion and conspiracy to conceal thousands of sexual assaults against young boys not to be considered the gravest of mortal sins as well as a crime? How in any god’s name do church leaders continue to preach against such perceived “evils” as homosexuality or contraception  -- both of which are widely accepted by Catholics -- while they are still cleaning up the very real mess of decades of priests having sex with young boys and the Church doing nothing about it? Is hypocrisy not in the Vatican’s dictionary? Shame? Sorrow? Repentance?
I was an altar boy in my youth, but our church was of the Byzantine rite. When that church merged with the Roman Catholic, priests who were married, like ours, were allowed to remain married. Some suggest that allowing priests to marry or allowing women to become priests would reduce the number of sexual predators in the priesthood. Certainly diminish the tendency to cover up their crimes. But when the nuns who do the in-person works of faith of the Church have dared to encourage discussion of these topics, as well as same-sex marriage or contraception, they have been threatened with punishment by the Vatican. Still, the heavy veil of silence rules. The mere discussion of important social issues is seen as a threat to the Church and its all-male leadership.
One thing politicians do find out is that credibility is an invaluable commodity. Lose it and you lose the voters. The Church is losing parishioners in droves and few young men are flocking to join the priesthood. The reasons for this are right in front of their eyes, but many of the leaders of the Church continue to ignore them and to act as if all will be well if they do so.
The sex scandal will remain a sordid, unfathomable chapter in the history of the Roman Catholic Church certainly as long as the victims are alive and, one hopes, so long as people of good conscience are around to make sure history is not rewritten.
Sincere acts of contrition by those responsible for committing and perpetuating this crime against humanity would certainly be welcome. As for those men of the cloth who see no need for such displays of humility, fortunately, their religion is one that believes in Hell. Personally, an eternity there seems fair.

bobgaydos.blogspot.com