In the Babylon Bee (an Onion-like evangelical parody site) two weeks ago: “Pope Says He Will Address Sex Abuse Scandal Once He’s Finished Talking About Climate Change.”
In an interview with NBC Chicago news, Cardinal Cupich (ellipses showing breaks in the interview for statements by the reporter):
It’s not as though I just fell out of the sky. . . .
The pope has a bigger agenda. He’s got to get on with other things, talking about the environment and protecting migrants and carrying on the work of the church. We’re not going to go down a rabbit hole on this. . . .
The record shows that whenever there’s actionable information, Pope Francis acts. . . .
Quite frankly, they also don’t like him because he’s a Latino. . . .
I wouldn’t be so stupid and foolish as to allow him to be recognized [with an award that was rescinded, if I had known]. . . .
It’s not just about the Catholic Church. Let’s look at all the agencies and institutions that deal with children on a day-to-day basis.
So on the one hand, what an unbelievable a**.
He discards the quite urgent and serious concerns of the laity over accusations of the Pope’s prior inaction, and questions about whether he will take action against bishops, because the environment and the fate of migrants are more important than the health of the Catholic Church.
He accuses Francis’s critics of racism (Francis is ethnically Italian, by the way).
And he tries to deflect attention to other institutions.
But on the other hand, it sure looks as if he, and Francis, and plenty of others have succumbed to the temptation to see their positions in terms of worldly power. No, they’re not using their power for their own direct benefit, to enrich themselves, or engage in debauchery, but they’re using it to pursue their secular objectives, tempted by the prospect of “saving the world” even if it’s at the expense of the well-being of the Church — and by “the Church” I do not mean the buildings and the hierarchy and the collection plate, but the Catholic faithful who will lose their faith, and the next generation who will not have it transmitted to them.
And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, 6 and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. 7 If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” 8 And Jesus answered him, “It is written,
“‘You shall worship the Lord your God,
and him only shall you serve.’”
Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ABlase_Joseph_Cupich_(cropped).jpg;
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