THE FRUITS OF THE RECENT RECOVERY OF THE 1970’S SPIRIT OF VATICAN II AND THE MELTDOWN AT THE JESUITS

Pope Francis in audience with fellow Jesuit, Fr. Marko Ivan Rupnick

As I have written before and will write again, the Church as a divine institution will survive the bad management of popes, bishops and priests as well as superiors of religious orders. 

We know that even Pope Benedict and also Pope St. John Paul II had to know about the now laicized former Cardinal, McCarrick and his total corruption and unspeakable abuse of seminarians and other vulnerable boys/teenagers/men in the Catholic Church. The Vatican gave a very unsatisfactory apologetic for it and no one in high places suffered any consequences in the form of justice.

And now, a case, another case, involving a well-known Jesuit, Fr. Marko Ivan Rupnik, looks like a “come to Jesus” moment for the Jesuit Order who has a very famous Jesuit in the highest place possible in the Church, Pope Francis, SJ.

Unfortunately, again, Pope Francis seems to be showing abundant mercy toward a sexual predator similar to the case of Bishop Zanchetta, the first priest  Pope Francis elevated to bishop. That case, along with the case concerning Fr. Rupnik begs for transparency from the pope and what seems to be his willingness to forgive and forget the foibles of some priests and bishops, especially if they court favor with the pope, but not with others. 

It is this kind of hypocrisy and corruption that weakens the Church and pushes Catholics away from the practice of the faith, more so than clown Masses of the post-Vatican II era. 

Edward Pentin has a good, thorough article on the Fr. Rupnik Case HERE, WHICH YOU CAN READ IN FULL, but below is the conclusion of his longer article:

‘Be as Transparent as Possible’

Asked whether the Society of Jesus could be more transparent about the Father Rupnik allegations, Jesuit Father Hans Zollner, director of Interdisciplinary Studies on Human Dignity and Care at the Pontifical Gregorian University, told the Register Dec. 9, “I don’t know whether anything more from the society’s side was possible in this case.” 

The Jesuit priest, who has been at the forefront of instituting safeguarding procedures regarding clerical abuse cases, said he expects “the same from the Society of Jesus as from all others in the Church: to be as transparent as possible.”

But his Jesuit confrere, Father Gianfranco Matarrazzo, a former Jesuit Provincial of the Euro-Mediterranean Province, expressed considerable anger over how the allegations have been handled. In Dec. 7 comments on Twitter, he wrote: “With all my limitations, I am trying to give my life to the Catholic Church through the Jesuits. The mortifying dichotomy ‘conservative or progressive’ has never belonged to me. But it has to be said: the ‘Rupnik case’ is a tsunami of injustice, lack of transparency, questionable management, dysfunctional activity, personalised work, apostolic community sacrificed to the leader and unequal treatment.” 

He added that the Dec. 2 Jesuit statement “relaunches this tsunami” that is “a paradigmatic case of justice denied” where “not even the alleged perpetrator has been helped.” The result is “deadly damage to the Jesuit Order, but even more so to Holy Mother Church,” he continued, and gave suggestions on what he believed needed to be done. These included accepting “full responsibility and consequences,” offering a “detailed reconstruction of everything that happened,” convening a press conference to “answer all questions in a transparent manner,” opening up the archives, and having Father Zollner “take a stand on his Order.”

For his part, the Holy Father has remained silent about the matter, even though the allegations regarding Father Rupnik and the Pope’s alleged intervention came to light only days after he affirmed in his Nov. 24 interview with the Jesuit journal America that transparency must be a central characteristic of how clergy abuse allegations are addressed. 

Asked whether this principle should be applied as strongly in cases involving bishops as it is with respect to priests, Francis replied, “Yes, and here I believe we have to go forward with equal transparency. If there is less transparency, it is a mistake.”