February is still a good way off, but it is not as far off as it might seem. Presumably, the Vatican is already busily preparing for the meeting of the heads of the world’s bishops’ conferences, scheduled for February 21-24. There’s a lot riding on the meeting. To say that public perception of the Pope’s handling of the burgeoning global crisis is not good would put one in the running for understatement of the year.
From Chile – where the latest chapter exploded in January – to Germany, the Netherlands, several countries in Africa (where women religious especially are reported to have been subjected to horrendous abuse), and India (where one bishop has been arrested on rape charges and another has had his diocese essentially placed in ecclesiastical receivership over shady real estate deals) – not to mention Ireland and the United States – Pope Francis has demonstrated a range of attitudes running from reluctance to near-total paralysis.
