Syl wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

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It was a beautiful funeral for a Pope with beautiful ideals. He said "build bridges not walls" whilst Trump is literally building walls to cause division. Seeing an imposter like Trump at Pope francis' funeral was so disheartening but the late Pope would want us to show him compassion. It is rather difficult for me to do that especially recalling when Vance insisted on meeting with the Pope. The Pope's eyes and body language showed his unease and distrust of the man. We could all learn so much from Pope Francis who loathed war and the dehumanising of refugees. A cardinal said how ironic it was seeing all the world leaders at the funeral out of duty who would doubtless ignore the message of peace the Pope held so dear. I didn't think I would get emotional but pope Francis was unlike the previous Pope's. His adage was "everyone is welcome", he believed inclusion was love. He even managed to promote two women which was too liberal for many within the Catholic church. May Pope Francis rest in peace.

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 I agree. It was very moving, and though I am not Catholic or religious and didn't follow his 'career', it's very clear he was an exceptional human being.

 

 The truth — unforgivably obscured by a mainstream media that relies on papal allies for “commentary” on Vatican affairs — is that Francis himself, both before and after his election, has empowered and protected predatory clergy and their accomplices.

No one paid any attention at the time, but one of the cardinals who joined the “humble” new pope on the balcony 10 years ago was the late Godfried Danneels, former Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels. In 2010, shortly after the very liberal Danneels retired, Bishop Roger Vangheluwe of Bruges admitted to his former boss that he had been sexually abusing his own nephew. Cardinal Danneels met the victim and, unaware that he was being recorded, told him to shut up about the abuse until the revelation would cause less embarrassment. Police questioned Daneels about the attempted cover-up and raided his offices. The recording was made public and Danneels — who once nurtured ambitions to become pope — was torn to pieces by a Belgian media that had once admired him.

So what was he doing on the balcony with Francis? And why, in 2015, did the Pope invite Danneels, guilty of trying to cover up incestuous abuse of a minor, to a Vatican Synod on the family, of all subjects? I asked the late Cardinal George Pell, who at the time was in charge of reforming Vatican finances. “To thank him for the votes,” replied Pell. Danneels was a member of the so-called St Gallen Mafia of elderly liberal cardinals who lobbied for Bergoglio in 2005 and 20213. In Pell’s mind, at least, rehabilitation was his reward

Consider, also, the case of Theodore McCarrick, the retired Archbishop of Washington, who twisted arms for Bergoglio. It was an open secret in Rome and the US Bishops’ Conference that “Uncle Ted” loved to seduce seminarians. When Benedict XVI discovered this, he banished him to a life of prayer and repentance. As soon as Francis was elected, McCarrick found himself back in favour, travelling around the world as the Pope’s unofficial emissary and fundraiser. Eventually the New York Times revealed that McCarrick was being accused of child abuse, at which point Francis had no choice but to strip him of his title of cardinal. But it should have happened years earlier given that, on becoming Pope, Francis was told that the Vatican had a thick file on McCarrick’s sexual activities.

One of Francis’s first acts as pope was to make his friend Fr Gustavo Zanchetta the Bishop of Orán in northern Argentina despite claims that he was corrupt. In 2017, aged only 53, Zanchetta resigned for “health reasons”. In fact, he had been reported by the Vatican nunciature in Buenos Aires for alleged abuse; in 2015, graphic gay sex images of himself and “young people” had been found on his phone and were reportedly shown to the Pope. (Zanchetta claimed they had been planted.) There were extensive allegations of misuse of funds that led to a raid on his former office by Orán police.

And what did Francis do after Zanchetta resigned? He created a special job for him in the Vatican “assessing” the assets of the Holy See. He would probably still have it if, in 2022, he hadn’t been sentenced to four and half years in jail in Argentina for the sexual assault of two seminarians while Bishop of Orán.

It took Pope Francis 11 years to ask for forgiveness  from people who were sexually abused by priests, and vowed that there will be no going back in the church's fight to protect children.

The pope made the off-the-cuff remarks after coming under criticism from victims' groups for a perceived lack of attention to the problem and ongoing demands that he sanction bishops who covered up for paedophiles.