Pope Francis still has a lot to learn

My wife once volunteered to supervise, for a week, a local kindergarten's playground activities. One day, one little boy attempted to bamboozle her about a misdemeanor he had committed against another little boy. My wife, seeing through this obvious ploy, explained to the first little boy that there once lived a man by the name of Richard Nixon, who did some very bad things. But the worst thing he did, she continued, was to try to cover up his transgressions. "The cover-up is often worse than the crime," she instructed the lad. She related this incident to me with hilarious effect, saying I should have seen the unsettled expression on the utterly uncomprehending little boy's face.

I wish my wife were here to explain life to Pope Francis. His cover-up of his meeting with the transgressive Kim Davis was more sinful than that of the little boy's, in that Francis should have known better. A Davis lawyer tells the NYT that his client "and Vatican officials had agreed to keep the meeting secret until the pope had left the United States because … 'we didn’t want the pope’s visit to be focused on Kim Davis.'" Yet now, of course, the memory of the pope's visit will be focused on little else; and the pope's silence about the meeting — which the Vatican insists was meant to be only temporary — has the stench of a cover-up.

A daily reader and — shameless hint — regular contributor emailed this this morning: "I can’t articulate how horrible I feel about this. Back to the cold comfort of cynicism for me. People and Popes will always break your heart."

I had always been invulnerable to papal heartbreak because my cynicism extended to all organized religion. Today, I feel the reader's pain.

Perhaps if my wife had been Pope Penn I, she could have enlightened the scheming little boys who run the Church. And boy, is Pope Francis ever in for a lecture when he meets up with my wife.

 

Comments

[Marc McKenzie]

Why don't we just wait for proof of this "meeting"? No pictures, no confirmation from the Vatican (just "unnamed sources"), just what her lawyer said to the NY Times--and here we are ready with the moans and groans about how the Pope "doesn't get it".

And you know what? Even if he met with Kim Davis, does this instantly negate everything positive about Pope Francis' trip to the US? His speech to Congress, his visit to the prison in Pennsylvania--all of these things (which were covered by the media) should be chucked out the window all because of a claim by Kim Davis' lawyer without any concrete proof to back it up?

Let's wait and see, shall we? Let's ask for (or demand) actual proof confirming this before unleashing the hounds.

Just my 2-cents.

[Peter G]

I think it is the other way around. People have a lot to learn about the Catholic church. When Pope Francis first started getting a lot of popular support and admiration I did warn people in the various forums I used to haunt that even if he wanted to Francis would have a great deal of difficulty in altering church dogma. And there is no reason to suspect that he would want to alter those dogmas. There still isn't.

The concept of Papal infallibility when it comes to pronouncements Ex Cathedra means they are pretty much irreversible. I like the guy for he is less confrontational about dogma and speaks to essence of Christianity in charity and forgiveness. But it does not blind me to the fact that institutionally the Catholic church still opposes gay sex and marriage, most birth control, the use of condoms even as prophylactics against disease, abortion for any reason obviously, and the ordination of women. None of which will not change under Francis.

That he met with Davis does not surprise me. That they wanted the fact of this to become known in a timely fashion does not surprise me either. The Pope speaks for conservative Catholics too and there are a lot of them.

[Peter G]

It negates none of what he said. But then he did not speak to any of the controversial dogmatic issues. And that is entirely consistent with his policy of being less aggressive on hot button moral issues.