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| Synod closes this Wednesday: Pope in a side chat with unofficial spokesman and Civiltà Cattolica director Fr Antonio Spadaro SJ (Photo by Matteo Matzuzzi) |
The Holy Father asked for forgiveness for the scandals in the Church, without mentioning which scandals, it could be the latest episode of Vatileaks or more likely the removal two Discalced Carmelites, one of whom accused the other of homosexual acts after a male prostitute spent several months in hospital after being beaten up, and of course the opening scandal of the Synod with that CDF Monsignor 'coming out'. Presumably what he is not asking for forgiveness for is the pro-Gay Fr Rosica fronting the English language section of the media briefings who seems to introduce at every opportunity or Abbot Jeremias Schröder who took part in this mornings briefings wants and the issue of homosexuality to be delegated to local bishops' conferences to decide, who has himself long called for the Church to bless homosexual unions, nor Archbishop Forte who added pro-gay clauses to the Relatio of the extra-ordinary Synod last year and is on committee that will oversea the final document - which may or may not be published.Some have suggested this should be called the 'Gay Synod', rather than the Synod on the Family, what is more than apparent is that what was once a shadowy lobby is now front and centre out of the lobby and sitting in the drawing room.
Fr. Ray Blake
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As we also said earlier today in our Twitter feed (which you should follow), if the Pope's highly ambiguous request for "forgiveness for scandals" in this Wednesday's General Audience was a request for forgiveness for the extremely unseemly scandal of a Synod that is obviously being manipulated by some in the highest echelons of the Synod itself, including the fact of the private letter of the 13 Cardinals (whose authorship and content was first revealed not by Sandro Magister, but by the favorite journalist of the Pope's own entourage, one of the unofficial Pope's spokesmen, Andrea Tornielli, as Magister himself revealed minutes ago -- see here in Italian), as part of the shadow-synod being cooked every evening in the papal apartments of the Casa Santa Marta, then we very humbly accept the apology. Though of course contrition must include at least the attempt to stop continue scandalizing, right?
Or maybe we got everything upside down. Maybe it was a kind of passive-aggressive "apology", which was not a real "apology", but a condemnation of others dressed up as an apology. But the humble Bishop of Rome would never do something so low, would he? We doubt it!
