Holy Smoke: The two time bombs threatening Pope Francis’s moral authority

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🗓️ 17 August 2019

⏱️ 31 minutes

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Summary

This week’s Holy Smoke podcast discusses two looming disasters for Pope Francis.

The first is the ‘Amazon Synod’ in October, at which the world’s bishops will discuss a bizarre plan to ordain Amazon ‘village elders’ as priests. The framework for the synod has already been published; Damian's guest Dr Ed Condon uses the word ‘Orwellian’ to describe the language it employs.

The second threat to Francis is more personal. When he became pope he lost no time making his friend Gustavo Zanchetta a bishop in Argentina. Bad move. Within a short time Zanchetta was facing allegations of sexual and financial impropriety. The Pope was informed of these allegations (and if you google them you’ll discover that they were pretty lurid).

His response? He plucked Zanchetta out of his diocese and created a plum job for him in Rome... managing the Vatican’s finances. Another bad move, now that Zanchetta, back in Argentina, is facing charges of molesting seminarians and other allegations of misusing money.

A mood of despair has set in at the Vatican. You’ll understand why if you listen to the podcast.

Presented by Damian Thompson.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before you start listening to this podcast, a reminder that we have a special subscription offer.
0:05.0	You can get 12 issues of The Spectator for £12 as well as a £20, £20,000, Amazon voucher.
0:10.0	Go to spectator.com.uk forward slash voucher if you'd like to get this offer.
0:19.0	Welcome to Holy Smoke, the Spectator's Religion podcast. I'm Damien Thompson.
0:25.6	When I was in Rome, in May, I was told repeatedly that the wheels are coming off the pontificate of Pope Francis, all words of that effect.
0:40.3	Now, admittedly, I was speaking to churchmen, including two cardinals who are
0:45.3	theologically conservative, and so not in sympathy with this Pope.
0:49.3	But one of those cardinals had been one of Francis's most senior advisors.
0:55.0	And what struck me was that most of the clergy I met, if I'd been talking to them, say, two years ago,
1:02.0	wouldn't have dreamt of being so personally disparaging about the Holy Father.
1:07.0	The common thread in these discussions was that Francis is neglecting his duties by presiding over,
1:14.4	even encouraging, a state of backstabbing chaos in which radical but incoherent changes to Catholic Church teaching,
1:23.0	underdivor's homosexuality and married priests, and being dangled in front of ordinary Catholics,
1:28.3	causing miserable confusion at a time when the church is reeling from ever more disgusting sex scandals.
1:36.3	And on that subject, I kept hearing something even more disturbing in Rome,
1:42.3	that it was becoming frighteningly clear that Pope Francis
1:46.0	was personally complicit in covering up sex abuse and other crimes committed by his allies.
1:53.0	So here we are in August and the Catholic Church is facing two specific nightmares.
2:00.0	The first is the so-called Amazon Synod. In October,
2:04.4	the world's senior bishops will meet to discuss the development of an integral ecology
2:09.5	based on the pastoral needs of the Amazon Basin. One of the items on the agenda is ordaining
2:16.0	married village elders in the region as priests,
	...

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