I’ve commented previously on how Pope Francis seems to whipsaw all over the place, especially in light of the “priestly pedophilia” scandal. At times he seems to comprehend there’s a problem, veers in the direction of admitting it and doing something about it, only to tack in the opposite direction and act as if the scandal is fictitious and some kind of wicked affliction of his Church.
For example: Shortly after his elevation, he commissioned a panel to review the issue, but allowed it to lumber along aimlessly, so that it finally imploded. He took note of the “priestly pedophilia” scandal that started brewing in Chile, only to condemn a bishop’s accusers as slanderers, but later appeared to realize that couldn’t have been the case, after all.
Over the past six months he’s taken decisive action against a number of abusive Catholic clergy, most recently erstwhile Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, whom he just defrocked. So many observers were convinced the Pope has at least an interest in handling this scandal instead of dismissing it, as his predecessors did.
Well, it turns out, they were wrong. Pope Francis has veered back into paranoid thinking once again. He used the occasion of one of his weekly papal audiences, according to Italian news service ANSA, once again to condemn critics of the Church, seeming to aim at victims of abusive priests (Archive.Is cached article):
Pope Francis said Wednesday that people who constantly accuse the Church of wrongdoing are friends of the Devil. “One cannot live a whole life accusing, accusing, accusing the Church,” the Argentine pontiff said during an audience with pilgrims from the Italian diocese of Benevento.
“Whom does the office of the accuser belong to? “Who is he that the Bible calls the great accuser? “I’m sorry, I did not understand… I cannot hear well… the devil! “And those who spend their lives accusing, accusing, and accusing are – I won’t say children, because the devil doesn’t have any – but they are the friends, cousins and relatives of the devil.
He did say that “defects” ought to be reported to the Church, but I guess they’re to be reported once only, and never mentioned again.
The Pope might seem to have a point by comparing the Church’s “accusers” with Satan, since that name in Hebrew can mean “accuser.” I guess what he’s saying, then, is that anyone who accuses anyone of anything is a “Satan,” then … right?
Once again, I’m left wondering what the hell Pope Francis is doing. He’s back to his old ways of swerving all over the place, I guess. And he just condemned all critics of the Church as friends and/or relatives of the Devil. That relieves him of the obligation, I suppose, of having to take their observations seriously and take any corrective action. What a fucking douchebag.
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons.