Well, the whole world - or at least the semi Christian world - is all a flutter over yet another freewheeling interview of Pope Francis conducted by acknowledged atheist and La Republica journalist Eduardo Scalfari. Before the ink had barely dried, Father Lombardi of The Vatican Press Office was already huffing out his damage control , assuring us that Scalfari was not directly quoting the unpredictable pontiff's exact words - especially in regard to two celebrated quotes which are already causing much comment and consternation among some, bemusement and amusement among others, including myself. More serious comment will follow in short order, I'm sure.
Why all this elaborate Comedy of Errors - surely this effect is exactly what Pope Francisco wants, else why grant a second interview to the very journalist who supposedly took such license with his words the first time around.
The two quotes-: paraphrased by me, since Father Lombardi assures us that as quoted they couldn't be the pope's own words.:
Some cardinals are among the church's pedophile abusers. Wow, what a shock to the cast system of clerical idolatry that barb must be, and I have no trouble believing Pope Francis capable of making such a simple, sensible, common sense observation.
And it only reminds me of the famous remark attributed to Our Lady of Garabandal, Spain in 1966:
Many priests, bishops and cardinals are on the road to perdition and are leading many souls with them.
The pope then goes on to "say," in Scalfari's imaginative rendition, that about 2% of Catholic priests are pedophiles, which would be lower than the current loose estimate of their number as less than 5% among the general population (if so, I doubt the pope's statistic). That seems a bit of damage control, and politely and very gently misses the point - it is not the number of pedophiles among the clergy that is and has been the problem, it is the astounding number of bishop enablers who have helped cover up the offending priests, thereby extending their rein of abuse and vastly increasing their number of victims.
Second quote: celibacy was instituted 900 years after the death of Christ. "The problem certainly exists, but it is not on a large scale. It will need time, but the solutions are there and I will find them."
Celibacy a problem? Another shock to the system of false institutional idolatry. Change does indeed come to the church - but oh so painfully slowly.
Two quite ordinary comments among ordinary mature, rational human beings. So why all the flutter?
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