Francis, the Party Pope: all style, no substance

Len and Walt are both traditional Catholics, appalled by the changes to the liturgy and indeed the Faith of the Church made in the wake of Vatican II -- "the best council the Protestants ever had".

We are more than a little disappointed in the pontificate of Pope Francis. It seemed to start with such promise. For instance, we were encouraged when, in April, the Holy Father asked the bishops of Portugal to consecrate his papacy to Our Lady of Fatima. See "Pope Francis to move on the Third Secret of Fatima?"

Even then, we were turning our eyes away from the "humbler-than-thou" nonsense, such as giving up the papal apartment in the Vatican, refusing the three-tiered crown, and generally proclaiming his humility and unworthiness (or unfitness?) to be the Vicar of Christ. See Walt's little April Fool "'I am not worthy...': Pope Francis resigns".

But we can no longer ignore the accomplisments of the Holy Father since his election. They amount to... wait for it... Nothing! Nada! Rien.

An article in last week's Economist said that his papacy is more about style than substance, but the fact is, there is no substance. Yes, the emperor does have new clothes -- as we see in this picture -- but underneath, he is all talk and no action.

Let's examine what Pope Francis has done... or not done... about the serious problems besetting the mainstream Roman Catholic Church today.

The most serious problem is the scandal and shame of paedophile and homosexual priests. Benedict XVI at least acknowledged the problem. But what does Pope Francis say? "Who am I to judge?" Click here to read Walt's answer!

Then there's the Vatican Bank. For years now, it had been turned into a money-laudering operation for the benefit of certain prelates and, yes, the Mafia. The Bank of Italy, frustrated with Benedict's failure to clean it up, went so far as to refuse to process bank-card transactions at Vatican ATM machines.

So what has Pope Francis done? He told the international press in July that he has turned over the bank to "trusted" advisors, Monsignori the Church. One of them, Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, was promptly arrested for financial fraud. Another, Monsignor Battista Ricca, was outed by Sandro Magister and L'Espresso, as a flaming homosexual, who regularly used the services of underage boy prostitutes and went so far as to bring his favourite rent-boy with him to the Apostolic Nunciature in Uruguay.

Now it is reported that the Holy Father's vaunted reform of the Curia, mandated by the College of Cardinals, has turned out to be too difficult for him. Francis himself said he was "too disorganized" and was being thwarted by "lobbies", including the notorious gay lobby within the Vatican. He tried to foist the problem onto a council of eight cardinals, but they won't even meet until this coming October.

Many of the other cardinals are getting restless. Cardinal Dolan (doubtless still miffed that he wasn't seriously considered for the position) has been grumbling publicly about the Pope's slowness to deal with the likes of Cardinal Bertone (still the Secretary of State), and Gerhard Muller, Benedict's Prefect of Doctrine, largely responsible for the rupture in negotiations with the Society of St. Pius X.

In the latest post on his Chiesa blog, Sandro Magister says Pope Francis is carefully avoiding reliance on old veterans of the Roman Curia, as he weighs his options for reforms at the Vatican. The Secretariat of State, traditionally the major power at the Vatican, has lost some influence to the small circle of the Pope's trusted staff -- most importantly his secretary, Father Fabian Pedacchio Leaniz. But Francis makes all important decisions himself.

The papacy of Pope Francis is not off to a good start. Good Catholics, please pray every day for the Holy Father, and that the True Faith will be preserved in spite of the failings of the leaders of Holy Mother Church.

Vatican insider identifies "prelate of the gay lobby"

Who said there's a well-entrenched gay lobby within the highest levels of the Roman Catholic Church -- within the Vatican itself? Pope Francis, that's who! On June 6th the Holy Father told a group of religious from Latin America, "In the curia there is talk of a 'gay lobby.' And it is true, it's there." Unfortunately, the Pope said, he wasn't sure what he could do about it because he was (as yet?) "too disorganized".

Turns out Pope Francis didn't know for sure who amongst the hundreds of Vatican officials and functionaries were closet queens. Lots of fingers were pointed but not with enough certainty that action could be taken. 

Just a few days ago -- according to noted Vaticanista Sandra Magister, writing today in l'Espresso -- the Pope told an Argentinian friend, "It is not easy. Here there are many of the pope's 'bosses' with great seniority of service". Now, Sr Magister says, some of these "bosses" have hatched against [Pope] Bergoglio "the cruelest and most subtle deception since he was elected".

They kept in the dark important information, had the Pope known it before, would have kept him from appointing Monsignor Battista Ricca "prelate” of the Institute for Works of Religion (IoR), the mysterious "Vatican bank" which has for some time been under investigation for money laundering and other forms of (alleged) corruption.

Just one week after appointing the "prelate", Sr Magister tells us, the pope became aware, from multiple sources, of a "black hole" in Msgr Ricca's personal history. Msgr Ricca was sent to the Vatican's diplomatic mission to Uruguay in 1999. He brought with him a captain of the Swiss army [not the Swiss Guard -- the army of Switzerland. Ed.] named Patrick Haari. The two had met while Msgr Ricca was posted to Bern. Such a close relationship developed that Msgr Ricca demanded that his "friend" be given a role and a residence in the nunciature in Montevideo.

According to Sr Magister, "The intimacy of the relations between Ricca and Haari was so open as to scandalize numerous bishops, priests, and laity of the little South American country, not last the sisters who attended to the nunciature." There's much more to the story. For further sordid details, read the English version, "The Prelate of the Gay Lobby".

The real question, of course, is why no-one said anything about Msgr Ricca's "alternative lifestyle" before his appointment to head the IoR. Sr Magister write, "a blanket of public silence has covered until today these past episodes of the monsignor."

He continues, "at the Vatican there are some who actively promoted this cover-up operation. By blocking the investigations from the time of the events until today. By concealing the reports from the nuncio. By keeping Ricca's personal file immaculate. In this way they facilitated a prestigious new career for Ricca."

Sadly, Sr Magister is (for the moment) unable to name names. Cardinal Battista Re is 79. Cardinal Bertone is only 78.

Further reading: "Homosexuality condemned in the Word of God", published right here in WWW just over four years ago.

Innocent question: Speaking of monsignors... whatever became of Msgr Alan McCormack, formerly an official of the Archdiocese of Toronto, who was sued (in the Supreme Court of Ontario, a civil court) by Father Nicholas Gruner, for publishing the lie that Father Gruner is not a priest. Last we heard, Msgr McCormack had been transferred to the Vatican, then back to Canada, where he was Judicial Vicar of the Canadian Appeal Tribunal until his resignation in February of last year. Where he is now is yet another Mystery of the Church.