Within the past few weeks or so, the Catholic Church has been stained by many accusations of child molestation against Priests. As we saw a couple of weeks back, there was a big story that broke out about a major child abuse scandal happening that involved Pennsylvania Catholic priests. According to the New York Times, approximately 1,000 children were abused by 300 priests over a course of 70 years, freaking insane. All of them were thankfully busted and will be serving prison time. Now, here’s a quick disclaimer, although I am personally not Catholic, this is not me ripping on the Catholic church as a whole. In fact, I’ve got family members who are catholic and I love them dearly. I’m just pointing this story out as a lead up to other story being talked about, which in retrospect is not a stain on the church. It’s a stain on the Pope and the leftist media.
So, in case if you haven’t heard of this story, here is the basic breakdown of it. Basically, archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò is accusing Pope Francis of covering abuses in the church perpetrated by Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. The credible accusations include, engaging homosexual activity which is against catholic rules to do so while a member, and more egregiously, molesting young children. While the the accusations against the Pope are alleged, they are credible and the fact that he has hardly said anything about it, just tells you about his character. Bottom line is that he needs to resign, because you can’t have someone who has the accusations and be the head of the church which is supposed to be a force for good in the world. While many Catholics have expressed their discern for the Pope and have repeatedly asked for his resignation for what he has done to the church, the leftist media have come straight to his defense.
The media have been the most egregious with this whole thing. It’s so funny, every other time a Christian gets in a controversy, they make it their goal to destroy their lives, but Pope Francis is a completely different story. The headlines and articles have been awful and here are a few of them. Here’s one from The Atlantic: The Power Play Driving the Latest Vatican Crisis. By: Rachel Donadio
In this extremely dramatic moment for the universal Church … Pope Francis must be the first to set a good example for cardinals and bishops who covered up [Cardinal Theodore] McCarrick’s abuses and resign along with the rest of them.” That was the stunning message of a letter, sent by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, that has been roiling the Catholic world since it was published in several traditionalist Catholic news outlets on Saturday. At turns moralistic and conspiratorial in tone, erratic in its deployment of facts, and written with the aid of a conservative Italian Vatican reporter, Viganò’s letter alleges a papal cover-up in the Church’s sexual-abuse scandal. So far, the pope has insisted to reporters that he would not “say a single word about” the letter, which has left him in a painful situation.
The first part is a letter Viganò wrote to the Pope regarding the accusations asking him to set a good example and step down, which seems reasonable. Here’s where she goes off the rails.
But the letter is a power play by Viganò as much as a cri de coeur calling for a cleanup of the Church. And it may ultimately say less about the Church’s victims than it does about the man who wrote it.
So, according her, this whole situation is nothing but a power play and that the only person who is at fault is Viganò. Forget that, children were harmed here and were forever traumatized by the situation, and that the Pope covered it up. No lets forget all of that, because Pope Francis is our wonderful hero and anyone who dares to go after him must be destroyed. Here’s more
Viganò has not explained his motivations, and the Italian journalist who helped him write the letter told the Times that Viganò had “disappeared,” fearing for his safety. But it’s worth noting his tense history with Francis. The pope sidelined Viganò after the archbishop foisted a Kentucky county clerk who had refused to grant same-sex marriage licenses into a photo op with the pope during his 2015 visit to the United States, a move that added a dissonant note to a pastoral visit. Italian media reported that the pope had even had Viganò evicted from a cushy Vatican apartment after his demotion.
…
His letter has nevertheless kicked a hornet’s nest of questions that Francis cannot ignore and triggered a a moral crisis his papacy, especially coming just weeks after a damning grand jury report in Pennsylvania revealed decades of sexual abuse by priests and a cover-up by church authorities, further eroding trust in the Catholic Church.
And here’s more:
Back in 2012, Viganò had other things on his plate. He was vocal to the Italian media in alleging that he had been sidelined by the Vatican’s then–secretary of state for trying to root out corruption in Vatican City State, of which he was then a top administrator. Later that year, Viganò became a key figure in “Vatileaks,” in which hundreds of documents, including many by Viganò, were leaked to a muckraking journalist who put them in a book. They alleged a shadowy gay network and financial mismanagement at the Vatican. (The journalist, Gianluigi Nuzzi, called his source only “Maria.” Tried in a Vatican court, the pope’s butler ultimately took the fall for the leaking.) Benedict was never a strong manager, and Italian Vatican experts reported that the Vatileaks crisis contributed to his decision to become the first pope in modern history to resign. At the height of the scandal, some commentators saw it as an attempt by traditionalists inside the Church to undermine the pope.
Basically what the piece is trying to do is make it seem like Viganò is trying to use this scandal as some nefarious plan to take down the Pope, which is just asinine. The New York Times also had piece by Jason Horowitz titled, Vatican Power Struggle Bursts Into Open as Conservatives Pounce. And here’s some of it.
ROME — Since the start of his papacy, Francis has infuriated Catholic traditionalists as he tries to nurture a more welcoming church and shift it away from culture war issues, whether abortion or homosexuality. “Who am I to judge?” the pope famously said, when asked about gay priests.
Ok yes, but the bible is also clear in saying that those are sins, but anyways, here’s more.
Just how angry his political and doctrinal enemies are became clear this weekend, when a caustic letter published by the Vatican’s former top diplomat in the United States blamed a “homosexual current” in the Vatican hierarchy for sexual abuse. It called for Francis’ resignation, accusing him of covering up for a disgraced cardinal, Theodore E. McCarrick.
Ok.
With the letter — released in the middle of the pope’s visit to Ireland — an ideologically motivated opposition has weaponized the church’s sex abuse crisis to threaten not only Francis’ agenda but his entire papacy. At the very least, it has returned the issue of homosexuality in the Roman Catholic Church, which many conservatives are convinced lies behind the abuse crisis, to the center of debate.
And there it is. While it’s true that the majority of child molestation committed by these priests are done against little boys, most Christian Conservatives I know are not making that the center of the scandal. It gets better.
On Monday, Francis’ supporters shrugged off the letter as another desperate attack from frustrated conservatives still unaccustomed to not getting their way. They expressed confidence that its accusations would be disproved
Ok, this is just stupid. Basically what this piece is claiming is that the only reason the conservatives are upset is because of the position Pope Francis takes on homosexuality, which may I add is not the stance catholic law or even the bible takes. Conservatives were so angry at him, so when a scandal comes to light, they use it to pounce against him. The media just fawning over Pope Francis just tells you where they actually stand. Headline after headline was an attack on Viganò and a defense of the Pope solely because he leans left on politics particularly immigration, homosexuality, and the environment. This is why conservatives don’t trust the media and why Trump won. I guarantee you that if Pope Benedict were still in office, the media would have treated him much differently.
The double standard of the media is doing nothing but dividing country further apart. When they attack the entire catholic church for sex abuse, but the minute it’s someone they caught in it, they do everything in their power to defend them. This has been going on for years, not just with the church, but also in politics as a whole. The media sits and wonders why conservatives don’t trust them and they like to say it’s all because of Trump, ignoring the fact that they have been doing this long before Trump and people just got sick of it.
Sources:
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/08/vigano-letter-pope-francis/569074/
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