Photo does not include Cardinal Pell, but there are 9 men with the pope - the man to his left in the photo is Mons. Marcello Semeraro, Bishop of Albano (Italy), who acts as the Council secretary.From left,
counterclockwise: Cardinals Errazuriz, Gracias, Maradiaga, Mons.Semeraro, the Pope, Cardinals Parolin (I think), Marx, O'Malley, Pasinya and Bertello.
Perhaps there is no better indicator of the state of the church of Bergoglio and alas, de facto, the state of the Catholic Church, than the current disarray in
the pope's handpicked council of 9 cardinals to assist him in the governance of the universal Church (never mind that only one of them had had any Curial experience
at all - Cardinal Bertello, whom Benedict XVI named Governor of Vatican City State in 2011)... Imagine how the media would be happily crucifying Benedict XVI and
raking him over the coals right now if just one of the issues besetting at least 4 out of the nine cardinals had plagued any important appointee of his!
Bergoglio's 'Crown Council' of advisers
is 'falling to pieces':
One is facing trial in Australia and two
Latin American cardinals are tainted by scandal
[Magister does not include a fourth, Cardinal Marx, who is effectively
leading the German Church in a schism from the universal Church,
a matter of a different magnitude than financial or sexual scandals]
May 20, 2018
When Jorge Mario Bergoglio set it up six months after his election as pope, it seemed like the beginning of a revolution: a council made up of eight cardinals from five continents, with the task of helping the pope in the reform of the curia and above all in the “governance of the universal Church.”
But after five years and twenty-four summits with Francis, the Curia is more derelict than ever, the universal Church is in a state of confusion, and this council of cardinals is in pieces. An unflinching photograph of the current pontificate, which deserves an enlargement.
Earlier, the eight had quickly become nine, with the inclusion of Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who initially was the designated victim of the presumed curial reform
[not he personally, but the all-powerful Secretariat of State, which was to be devolved of its powers, particularly administrative and fiscal powers over other Vatican agencies], whereas now he has more influence than all the others put together [as his Secretariat successfully recovered the powers initially taken from it and was allowed by the pope to acquire new powers. One step forward, three steps back - the story of the curial reform under Bergoglio so far].
But acting as coordinator of the C9, as the media has taken to call the pope's advisory council, is still Honduran Cardinal Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga, whom Francis stubbornly keeps in the saddle in spite of the fact that
his reputation is in tatters, even among his colleagues on the C9. [Is that right? Does Cardinal Errazuriz of Chile, for instance, think less of Maradiaga now? Cardinal Pell, like Errazuriz and Maradiaga tarred with the same sex abuse brush, has been out of the Vatican for months now, so he's probably completely out of internecine rivalries, of which he already was victim enough.]
L'Espresso was the first and has gone on to report repeatedly on the charges against Maradiaga, which have been on the pope’s desk for a year, compiled in the ponderous report of the apostolic visitor, Argentine bishop Alcides Casaretto, sent by the pope to Honduras to investigate the scandal.
But even more serious accusations continue to rain down on Maradiaga's close friend, Tegucigalpa's Auxiliary Bishop José Pineda Fasquelle [i.e., Maradiaga's own vicar in the diocese], painting a dismal picture of financial mismanagement and continuous sexual transgressions, at the diocesan seminary but not only there.
Then there is a second cardinal of the “C9” who is in trouble for misdeeds having to do with deliberately ignoring sex abuse complaints against some of his bishops: the Chilean Francisco Javier Errázuriz Ossa, archbishop emeritus of Santiago.
He is charged with having covered up for one of his colleagues, Osorno bishop Juan Barros, who in turn was the disciple and accomplice of a charismatic and once highly honored priest, Fernando Karadima, the spiritual guide and at the same time serial predator of countless young men and teen boys, found guilty and sentenced by Vatican authorities in 2011.
It was Errázuriz, in 2014, who advised Pope Francis not to name Juan Carlos Cruz, the main victim and accuser of Barros, to the newly created Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. And Francis readily agreed, being completely convinced himself of the innocence of Barros and the falsehood of what he called “calumnies.”
On the pope’s recent trip to Chile all of this exploded like a bomb, above all against him, to the point that after returning to Rome Francis found himself constrained to send to that country an inquisitor experienced in these matters, Maltese Bishop Charles Scicluna. Whose report finally persuaded the pope to acknowledge that he had been wrong and to blame those who had given him “untruthful information,”
in primis, Cardinal Errázuriz.
At the end of April Francis received some of the victims, and in mid-May he called all the bishops of Chile to report to Rome. After which not only Barros but also Errázuriz could come to the end of the line.
Because Australian cardinal George Pell is also on trial in his country for sex-abuse accusations dating back half a century, he has been out of Rome for many months now and has therefore not taken part in any C9 meeting since he left Rome.
But at the Vatican his fate had already been precipitated before this and for other reasons, from the time when he was deprived, as Prefect of the brand-new Secretariat for the Economy, of the powers of supervision over all the administrative and financial offices of the Holy See, which went back to acting on their own account just as before the putative Bergoglian reform, and with the Secretariat of State more untouchable than ever.
The Secretariat for the Economy is now an empty shell, without a prefect, without a secretary, without an auditor general, after the first and only one so far, Libero Milone, was unceremoniously dismissed last June, apparently for investigating where he should not have.
It will come as no surprise therefore if the grand council of nine cardinals will further be whittled down by scandal or papal whim.
[I do not understand why Magister does not count Cardinal Marx as among the falling pieces in the Crown Council. His recent doctrinal/pastoral initiatives (on allowing Communion for remarried divorcees and for non-Catholic spouses) - though obviously in line with the pope's own wishes and intentions - have nonetheless put the German church in a state of virtual schism with the universal Church on those two paramount issues regarding the Eucharist.That is surely a destabilizing offense on a higher order of magnitude and gravity than involvement in sex abuse cover-ups and/or financial anomalies.]
Here is the index of all previous related commentaries in Settimo Cielo:
On the case of Cardinal Maradiaga, in more detail:
> Il cardinale da 35 mila euro al mese: in Vaticano scoppia un nuovo scandalo (21.12.2017)
> El lado oscuro de Maradiaga (5.2.2018)
> Former Seminarians Allege Grave Sexual Misconduct by Honduran Bishop Pineda (4.3.2018)
> Still No Action Taken Against Honduran Bishop Accused of Sexual Abuse (27.4.2018)
On the case of Cardinal Errázuriz:
> In Chile Francis Is Duplicating Himself. And Nobody Knowns Which Is the Real One (16.1.2018)
> Why Francis Married Two Unknowns, But Refuses To Listen To Inconvenient Witnesses (22.1.2018)
> Letter sent by the Holy Father toi the Bishops of Chile (8.4.2018)
> The Doctrine of Tribulation (3.5.2018 – "La Civiltà Cattolica")
> Abuse Victims Accuse Chilean Member of Pope Francis’ C9 Council (4.5.2018)
> Comunicato della sala stampa della Santa Sede (12.05.2018)
> Texto completo de la carta de Papa Francisco entregada a los obispos chilenos el martes 15 de mayo en el Vaticano
> Dichiarazione del direttore della sala stampa e lettera del Santo Padre (17.5.2018)
> Dichiarazione dei vescovi della conferenza episcopale del Cile, a Roma (18.5.2018)
On the case of Cardinal Pell:
> The Pope's Armed Guard, According To the Former Vatican Auditor (24.9.2017)
> Vatican Without Peace. Money, Sex, and an LGBT Crèche (28.12.2017)
> Curia Stories. The Comeback of the Cardinal Secretary of State (14.1.2018)
> Cardinal Pell to stand trial on sex abuse, but several charges dismissed (1.5.2018)
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 21/05/2018 02:56]