The issuing of his 11 page letter by former nuncio Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano raises many questions; as many about his own motives as about what he alleges.
Two articles, one in the National Catholic Reporter and the other in The Washington Post attempt to fill in the background to the issuing of the letter and the influence that conservative catholic media organisations played.
The Washington Post article says “news this week that Catholic journalists were involved in editing and distributing a Vatican diplomat’s explosive and largely unverified letter calling for the pope’s resignation reveals an influential and tightly knit conservative Catholic digital media network that’s been particularly active during the tenure of its nemesis, Pope Francis.”
The article offers two ways to view these journalists;
quoting a ‘conservative lay leader’ who says ““This whole episode seems like total Fake News … The allegations of sexual abuse coverup “have to be investigated, wherever they lead. But the way this came out, it really struck me: ‘They’re really out to get Francis.’ ”
and from ‘one commentator in the conservative Catholic media sphere’;
“They’re not trying to be objective,” the person said. “They are trying to evangelize; they’re trying to spread the good news, spread the message as they understand it. They are activists.”
Cui bono? Who benefits?
Vatican won’t say if women can vote in upcoming Synod of Bishops’.
The reticence of the Taliban!!
”It’s not the vote that counts”says (again) Cardinal Grech…
So why not remove the vote altogether from the Synod, to make that very clear. If the vote really doesn’t count, Cardinal Grech and his fellow men won’t mind losing it. Or is it that ‘the vote doesn’t count’ applies only when excluded women ask for it?
It looks like the only vote women are allowed is…voting with their feet!
What is it about liberals and woolly thinking? Does it come from knowing you’re right even when you know you’re wrong.
The story, according to the article itself, is:
Vatican won’t say if women can vote in upcoming Synod of Bishops
-unless they hold one of the offices entitled to vote
-in which case they almost certainly can.
Other people who probably won’t be voting: men not holding an office with voting rights.
Also excluded: bakers, mountaineers, pop singers and (I guess) the Pope himself.
If you’re looking for the kind of critical thinking that comes with being politically incorrect and needing to be able to defend your position I would recommend the National Catholic Register.
I suppose Ger would be angry if women were not allowed to vote in an Irish General Election so why does he seem to be against women voting in the forthcoming Synod? I know that they may not hold an Official Leadership position in the Church but that’s because they have been denied one by a male dominated Church. I agree with Paddy Ferry. There definitely are parallels and shades of the Taliban in all of this!
I suppose I should have been clearer Frank.
According to the article itself there IS a woman in a leadership role who will be entitled to vote. (We can assume this is the case since the previous office holder had a vote and no one has said otherwise.)
Sister Natalie Becquart is one of two Under-Secretaries of the Synod of Bishops.
And fair play to her.
Here she is
https://www.americamagazine.org/sites/default/files/styles/article_image_750_x_503_/public/main_image/2021/09/07/AP21250467783471.jpg.jpg.png
Why does everyone assume that Ger Hopkins is a man? I’ve assumed she’s a Geraldine all along.
But Ger, on the subject of Sr Natalie Becquart’s enfranchisement, the words ‘swallow’, ‘summer’, ‘one’, ‘make’ and ‘doesn’t’ keep intruding into my woolly thinking. Does that make me a ‘liberal’?
Meanwhile, can we just create a little space and time to read those Vatican documents – remembering that time is always greater than space and realities greater than ideas ?
In her keynote speech at the Root and Branch event in Bristol yesterday, Mary McAleese disentangles the noxious rhetoric of synodality which is contradicted by the last four failed synods. The one on synodality will be just as bad. Can ACP access this speech?
(The Root and Branch Synod is still running – programme details may be accessed here.
https://www.rootandbranchsynod.org/synod-programme.
Links will be posted to presentations when available. – ACP Site moderator)