POPE FRANCIS BLAMES CLERICALISM OF CLERGY, AND LAITY, FOR ABUSE SCANDAL, BUT DOES NOT USE THE TERMS BISHOPS AND HOMOSEXUALITY

The pope’s new unimpressive letter is a nice try, pious platitudes and acknowledging the obvious, but it fails miserably. Sounds like the pope is listening more to Cupich and not at all to Burke or Morlino. That’s a huge mistake and the letter shows that blunder!

You can read the pope’s letter to the people of God HERE!

John Allen’s Crux excerpts:

Francis did not, however, offer any new specifics as to what those accountability measures might be.

Strikingly, Pope Francis never uses the word “bishop” in his letter, although the role of some members of the hierarchy in exacerbating the abuse crisis through inaction or outright cover-up has been a central bone of contention for some time.[Neither is homosexuality mentioned by the pope!]

Francis identified clericalism as a central culprit in the abuse scandals.“Clericalism, whether fostered by priests themselves or by lay persons, leads to an excision in the ecclesial body that supports and helps to perpetuate many of the evils that we are condemning today,” he wrote.

“To say ‘no’ to abuse is to say an emphatic ‘no’ to all forms of clericalism,” he said.

The pontiff called for broader and deeper lay involvement as an important part of recovery from the crisis.

“It is impossible to think of a conversion of our activity as a Church that does not include the active participation of all the members of God’s People,” he said.