An anonymous cardinal has launched an astonishing attack on Pope Francis’s style of papacy, saying it is autocratic, vindictive and confusing and that it has left the Church “more fractured than at any time in her recent history”.
The cardinal, who wishes to be unnamed in fear of reprisals, set out a blueprint for what must be done by the next pope to repair the damage of the Francis years.
He acknowledged that Francis’s strengths included “compassion toward the weak, outreach to the poor and marginalised, concern for the dignity of creation” and for people who were suffering and burdened but said the shortcomings of the present papacy “are equally obvious”.
