Not quite business as usual

During these very dark and depressing times of terrorist attacks and military reprisals in the Holy Land, the ongoing war in Ukraine, and the perceived crisis of mass migration affecting numerous places (especially) in Europe and North America, it seems almost indecent to spend too much time writing about Vatican or ecclesiastical politics.

And, yet, there is more than a little ink that could be spilled about the less-than-placid state of affairs inside the Catholic Church these days, much of which is due to the dynamic and disruptive pontificate of history's first-ever Jesuit and New World pope. Francis, is only four months away from completing eleven years on the Chair of Saint Peter. And during this time, he has successfully won the admiration of hundreds of millions of people around the globe (including many non-Catholics and people in the world of secular media/entertainment), while fomenting anger and despair in the hearts of a small, but significant global cohort of more traditional-minded members of his Church -- including clergy from deacons to cardinals.

But the Argentine pope, who will be 87 next month and is increasingly diminished in his physical capacities, is struggling to keep up the whirlwind pace he set in March 2013 when he was elected Bishop of Rome. The past several days have captured that, demonstrating some of the pope's continued strengths, but also some of his stumbles.

The wars in the Holy Land and Ukraine

Francis was among the few global leaders to call immediately for a ceasefire in the Hamas-Israel war, a taboo subject for the current Israeli government. In remarks following the Sunday Angelus on November 5, he appealed for five concrete actions. He repeated his call for a ceasefire "in the name of God"; urged steps to avoid expanding the conflict; called for the freeing of hostages; urged more humanitarian aid for Gaza; and asked people to "pray for the strength to say, enough!" He especially prayed for the children who are victims "of this war, as in Ukraine and other conflicts".

The next afternoon, in fact, Francis hosted a gathering in the Paul VI Hall(where the recent Synod assembly took place) for several thousand primary-school-aged children, the vast majority of them Italian kids. Many were seated on the floor up on the "stage" around the pope's chair as he took several questions on various topics such as war and peace, care of the planet, how to manage one's anger, what the pope dreams about at night, and so forth. Francis entered into a sort of dialogue with children, asking them to repeat some phrases two or three times -- e.g. "peace is beautiful", "to dream is beautiful", "children are messengers of peace", "when you get angry, before responding, drink a glass of water".

The gathering with the kids was the seventh and final "audience" the gregarious pope held on November 6, a Monday morning that included a meeting inside the Apostolic Palace with a delegation from the European Conference of Rabbis. The elderly pope was not so gregarious at that event -- or at least that's what people on the outside thought. In fact, at the very beginning of the encounter, Francis told the Jewish leaders his "health is not good", so he had decided to give each of them a copy of his prepared speech, rather than read it. The Holy See Press Office, only moments later, said the pope had a slight cold. But Francis actually did address his guests, albeit without using the prepared remarks. There was obviously no cold, unless the pope experienced a sudden, perhaps miraculous healing, because right after he said goodbye to the rabbis he held another meeting with a large group of people from Sicily. Of course, this led to all sorts of speculation over the real reason why he did not want to read the speech to Jewish leaders, even though that text has been officially published.

Bishops and covering up sex abuse

Francis' remarks to the group from Sicily appear to be much more problematic, though very few media outlets (at least in the English-speaking world) have even noted them. Basically, the pope began that encounter by defending Bishop Rosario Gisana, a Sicilian prelate who's been accused of protecting a priest who is currently under trial for sexually abusing a minor. "This bishop is bravo (good). He's been persecuted and slandered," the pope said. "He's a good man." But in an audio recording, which is part of the trial, the priest confesses to having child-porn on his computer and the bishop tells him not to worry because another priest of the diocese recently did "much worse".

As speculation goes, there are many possible reasons why Francis decided it was ok to publicly defend a bishop who is essentially on trial for abuse cover-up. Even in the recent past, the pope has been slow to believe allegations of abuse or cover-up that directly involve friends or allies. One of the most famous cases is that of Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta, an Argentine prelate who was accused of abusing seminarians and young priests long before Francis put him in a senior post in the Vatican from 2017-2021. Zanchetta was finally convicted by civil court in Argentina and condemned to several years in prison. But he has somehow been allowed to serve the sentence in a monastery of nuns. Then there's the case of Cardinal Marc Ouellet, the former prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, who was accused by a women in the Archdiocese of Quebec of sexual harassment. There are new protocols in place to investigate such allegations. Francis was the one who established them, but he did not properly follow them in Quellet's case.

Double-speak on sexual violence against women?

The pope last Thursday rightly lent his moral authority and offered his encouragement to an Italian non-profit initiative called: “A long wave to combat male violence against women.” Francis sent a message to the organizers, saying “it is the responsibility of each of us to give a voice to our voiceless sisters". He went on to say: “Let us not remain indifferent! We must act now, at all levels, with determination, urgency, and courage.” The pope called such abuse a "scourge" and said it was the result of male "domination”.

His words are not only encouraging, they should also be reassuring to women who have been sexually harassed or violated by men in the Church -- especially by priests. That's because they must mean the pope has developed his thinking on the issue and just recently. The Jesuits told him a couple of years ago, and again several months ago, that their (and his) former confrere Marko Rupnik -- the Slovenian priest and world-famous mosaic artist -- had been credibly accused of sexually abusing more than 20 consecrated women. But Francis did not seem to believe those "voiceless sisters". He even lifted the automatic excommunication Rupnik incurred when he absolved one of his alleged victims in the confessional. The pope stood by Rupnik right up until last month when it was revealed that a Slovenian diocese had incardinated the former Jesuit as a priest in good standing. The outcry was so severe from various quarters, even from members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, that Francis decided to have the Vatican reopen Rupnik's case.

Back to the friendly skies 

The pope has had a few other things on his agenda the past several days, as well. He held his Wednesday general audience last week in St. Peter's Square, as usual, and again appealed for a "just peace" for "the Palestinian and Israeli people", while not forgetting to mention Ukraine. "War is always a defeat!" he said. The same day he signed a decree recognizing a miracle attributed to the heavenly intercession of the late Cardinal Edoardo Pironio (d. 1998), an Argentine bishop who worked many years in the Vatican and is considered the "inventor" of the Church's now-famous World Youth Day.

And last Wednesday was also the day the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) issued the note affirming that transgender persons and surrogate-born children of homosexual couples can be baptized in the Catholic Church. An interesting feature of the two-and-a-half-page document is that it bears the pope's signature along with that of the DDF prefect Argentine Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez. This appears to be only the second or third time Francis has signed a DDF document and would seem to be a new practice under the recently-named Fernandez. Usually, the prefect and secretary actually sign the DDF text, while the pope's approval or order to publish the document is merely stated.

Francis is not only trying to keep things humming along as usual on the home front. He recently announced that he was flying to Dubai to take part in COP28, the latest round of UN-sponsored negotiations on combating climate change. This surprised many observers since, upon returning from Mongolia in early September, he admitted to journalists travelling back to Rome with him that "taking a trip now is not as easy as in the beginning". It was thought that the papal visit to Marseille, which was already scheduled for a few weeks later, might, indeed, be the last of his pontificate.

The Holy See Press Office released the itinerary and logistical details of the upcoming journey to Dubai. It will be a short trip. The papal plane takes off from Rome Fiumicino Airport at mid-morning on December 1st, arriving later that Friday evening in the United Arab Emirates' largest city. The following Sunday morning -- after just 38 hours in town -- the wheels will up again and Francis will be returning to Rome. Some 65-70 journalists are expected to bid for a seat in the back of that papal plane. And it will cost them only € 3, 200 -- that's almost the price of a first-class ticket on a commercial flight operated by Emirates, the same airline that will be taking the pope back home.