• Home
  • Diocese
  • Bishop Burns
  • Synod
  • Columnists
  • Revista Catolica
  • Pope Francis
  • Subscribe
The Texas Catholic
The Texas Catholic

Dallas, Texas

Today is Tuesday, June 28, 2022
  • Home
  • Diocese
  • Bishop Burns
  • Synod
  • Columnists
  • Revista Catolica
  • Pope Francis
  • Subscribe
  • Follow
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
Home
Pope Francis

‘Scourge of abuse, internal attacks’ mark pope’s sixth year in office

Tuesday, March 12, 2019

A sunset after a day of rain illuminates the cobblestones near the Vatican in Rome March 5, 2018. Pope Francis’ sixth anniversary as pope is March 13. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — Catholics cannot place blame for the sexual abuse crisis on “those who came before us” in an attempt “to present ourselves as ‘pure,'” said the editorial director of the Vatican media outlets.

The church today must ask God to free it from evil, said Andrea Tornielli, editorial director of the Dicastery for Communication.

On the eve of Pope Francis’ sixth anniversary as pope — he was elected March 13, 2013 — Tornielli offered a quick review of the pope’s past year, focusing particularly on his plea for Catholics to pray the rosary in October, asking for protection of the church from attacks by the devil.

Tornielli’s review included listing the Synod of Bishops on young people, the Vatican summit on child protection and clerical sexual abuse and the pope’s trips abroad.

But the piece published on Vatican News March 12 also mentioned the call for Pope Francis to resign issued by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, the former nuncio to the United States, who claimed in August that the pope knew of and ignored sanctions issued against then-Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick because of sexual misconduct.

Pope Francis’ sixth year in office, Tornielli said, “was characterized by the scourge of abuse and by suffering from internal attacks. His response was a call to return to the heart of faith.”

In the face of the McCarrick case and Archbishop Vigano’s letter, he said, the pope “asked all the faithful in the world to pray the rosary every day during the Marian month of October 2018 to unite themselves ‘in communion and penance as the people of God in asking the holy mother of God and St. Michael the Archangel to protect the church from the devil, who always tries to divide us from God and each other.'”

“Such a detailed request is unprecedented in the recent history of the church,” Tornielli said.

The pope’s request demonstrated an awareness of “the gravity of the situation,” but also a conviction that human efforts alone would not remedy the situation.

“Once again, the pope has recalled what is essential: The church is not made of super-heroes — or even super-popes — and does not move forward by virtue of its human resources or of its strategies,” Tornielli wrote.

The Catholic Church knows that evil is present in the world, that original sin exists and that to be saved “we need help from above,” he said. “Repeating that does not mean diminishing the personal responsibility of each individual or the responsibility of the institution but of situating them in their real context.”

While not mentioning reports putting much of the blame for failing to handle the abuse crisis adequately 20 years ago — pointing figures at St. John Paul II and the cardinals closest to him — Tornielli said, “it would be an error put the blame on those who came before us, and to present ourselves as ‘pure.'”

Today and every day, he said, the church must pray to be “delivered from evil. This is a fact of reality that the pope, in continuity with his predecessors, has constantly recalled.”

Acknowledging how the past year was “troubled” for Pope Francis, Tornielli insisted that the pope was right to push for more effective norms, responsibility and transparency, but also to realize that they would not be enough to end the crisis.

The church, as Pope Francis has taught, must recognize “herself as a beggar asking for healing, in need of mercy and forgiveness from her Lord.”
 

  • Tags
  • Pope Francis
  • Vatican
Facebook Twitter Google+ LinkedIn Pinterest
Next article Four CRS staffers, humanitarian workers aboard Ethiopian jet that crashed
Previous article Benedictine abbot leads pope, curial officials in Lenten retreat

Related Posts

Pope asks families to take a small step toward greater holiness Pope Francis
Wednesday, June 22, 2022

Pope asks families to take a small step toward greater holiness

Strength can be found in frailty of old age, Pope Francis says Pope Francis
Wednesday, June 22, 2022

Strength can be found in frailty of old age, Pope Francis says

Seek nourishment, satisfaction in Eucharist, Pope Francis says Pope Francis
Tuesday, June 21, 2022

Seek nourishment, satisfaction in Eucharist, Pope Francis says

Texas Catholic Classics

A look at the five Dallas law enforcement officers who gave their lives while protecting citizens during a mass shooting in downtown Dallas in July 2016.

 

How a child with special needs inspired a high school volleyball team, community and a family who heeded God’s call to protect life.

 

After a young runner collapsed at a Dallas marathon, grace and providence unfolded for those involved in the valiant effort to help her.

   

In the summer of 2016, 50 students and 25 chaperones from Dallas Catholic high schools traveled to Nicaragua for a 10-day mission trip.

 

Early on a November morning, Kenndrick Mendieta bounded from the gym at Cristo Rey Dallas College Prep toward the campus’ athletic fields as clouds lifted on a fresh new day.

 

Subscribe

Get the award-winning Texas Catholic delivered to your door. Use the menu below to subscribe now.


Subscription length




 

Photo Gallery

Click here to find your favorite Texas Catholic photographs.

The Texas Catholic Newspaper

Catholic Diocese of Dallas
Michael Gresham, Editor

3725 Blackburn Street
Dallas, Texas 75219
(214) 379-2800

Our Affiliated Sites

Texas Catholic Youth

Revista Católica

Legal and Other

Contact us

Terms of service

Privacy policy

Site map

Site powered by TexasCatholicMedia

© 2013-2019 The Texas Catholic Publishing Company. All rights reserved.