We have a new Pope, Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina. He stands
first and foremost for social justice, especially in his concern for the
poor. Poverty will be his focus. Hopefully, the notion of 'poverty'
will be expanded beyond the economistic reduction which the media has
already begun to accentuate. Poverty is not only about material
impoverishment but, in the extreme, also spiritual impoverishment. More
specifically and to the point one could be no more impoverished than
when one has been sexually abused as a child by a priest of the Catholic
Church.
If this Pope does not take seriously child
abuse, this spiritual scourge that eats at the foundations of
Catholicism and the heart of Christianity, then he will rank no more
highly than any within the lineage of Popes thus far. Until now no Pope
has taken the corruption of abuse seriously. Why? It continues.
Cover-ups continue. Lack of compassion continues. Systematic deferral
of the problem continues. Paying the problem to go away continues.
Dealing with this paramount issue has not even begun.
Facing
and dealing with the issue of child abuse will shake the foundations of
this church. They know this. If they confront the infinite depth of
this sin, the structure will shift beyond imagination.
Interestingly
Bergoglio takes the name of Francis. Francis was never ordained,
preached poverty and repentance. The patron saint of nature. Will Bergoglio vow
poverty? Repent? Respect the Environment?
Will
Bergoglio impoverish "poverty?" Or will he deal with the absolute curse
of "poverty" as a whole? When 'poverty' is understood in its robust and
deeply rooted sense it will enable dealing with the desecration of
innumerable children by sexual abuse, the denigration of the environment
by materialism run amok and the decay of the very essence of the
spirituality of the religious life itself.
Jesus said
that what we do to the least of them, we do unto him. Who could be
lesser than the child? Who more innocently vulnerable? Bergoglio could
make himself "naked" like Francis. He could make the Chruch "naked" to
its loss of its own soul.
Like the proverbial
'Emperor,' the Church has no clothes. And as the fable goes, it took a
child to speak the truth, possibly an abused and forgotten child.
