So why did Francis go back to Scalfari? I reckon the uncheckability of the quotes suits him fine. He can express his views that the Vatican is crawling with fawning backstabbers and that sexual perverts are over-represented among the clergy right up to the level of cardinal – yet leave himself diplomatic legroom by allowing for the possibility that he’s been misquoted. He is a Jesuit, after all. So is Lombardi, but it’s obvious who is being more Jesuitical here.[Hat tip to Sir A.S.]
The background to this is the Pope’s war on the Vatican. I think he hates the place. And it’s interesting that he’s placed enormous power in the hands of Cardinal George Pell, who is also full of contempt for its greedy placemen. My guess is that the reforms, when they come, will be savage. (emphasis added)
Monday, August 11, 2014
Damian Thompson on the Pope's hatred of Vatican corruption
Damian Thompson, "The Pope and ‘paedophile cardinals’: another clue that Francis is at war with the Vatican" (The Spectator, July 18, 2014), just in case you missed it -- which concludes, amazingly:
Those who succor sodomites use the word pedophile to deflect from the truth that it is the sodomitic clergy who are the problem.
ReplyDeletePederasts amongst the clergy are a very small percentage but the sophism of senecdoche in Thompson's usage seeks to obfuscate that truth; that is, he labels sodomites as pedophiles because they are, for the moment, still considered slithering snakes whereas the enlightened have embraced the sodomisation of society
Thomson's interpretation may or may not be right. But with respect, Vatican politics which have ever been there, are but a sideshow.
ReplyDeleteTheir are two very much greater issues. One is the collapse of the Church in the post-Vatican II period by whatever means you choose to measure, and it's still heading for the floor. Second, I am not sure the Holy Father has understood this and if he has, I doubt he has the strategic instinct to do anything about it.
One further point. I was brought up and educated in a Jesuit parish, centre of a city. The priests were like any other lot. Some good some not. None of them particularly intellual or devious.
"jesuiticy", if that's the right word, is very much overplayed.
Mr. Thompson ,
ReplyDeleteSo why does he live in a house run by a homosexual?
And what happened to the gay lobby report?
Dang. ABS hates his software
ReplyDeletehttp://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/synecdoche