Trouble In Vatican City

And people were bringing children to him that he might touch them,
but the disciples rebuked them.
When Jesus saw this he became indignant and said to them,
"Let the children come to me;
do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to
such as these. 
Amen, I say to you,
whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child
will not enter it."
Then he embraced them and blessed them,
placing his hands on them.

No matter where you turn, the abuse scandal seems to be raising its ugly head. There are two things that we have to ask as the ugliness obscures vision as if it were a fog or mist that could penetrate the smallest opening and cause its ugliness to spread beyond the artificial borders that those in power built up to contain it.  What could our bishops and cardinals have been thinking about?   The devil can use anything we have covered up to further his goal of pulling people from the Church.  It is his fondest wish to give the Bride of Christ a black eye.

Secondly, how far does the miasma go?  Some say that there is a cadre of gay cardinals pushing their agenda but that, of course, has little, if anything, to do with the abuse of children, adolescents, and adults.  There are also factions that are pushing their agenda to marginalize the Eucharist by allowing those disqualified due to their mode of life to receive it.  Some even want to open the Blessed Sacrament to non-Catholics that just happen to be married to a Catholic.  Where did these novel and dangerous ideas come from? 

The Holy Father is supposed to take the rudder of the Church and keep her on the orthodox course but he appears to be remaining silent and inactive as if he is paralyzed or does not know what to do. Francis needs to excise the cancerous growth that dares to protect those that would violate their vows by sexually abusing the members of the flock.  Yet, he does nothing, he does not seem to want to address the issue.  He has said he wants the McCarrick issue to be fully investigated.  Well, this sounds good, but I am afraid that it is just too little and too late.  Will there be an investigation that is worthy of the name?  Who will do the sleuthing?  Will names be named and will Francis do what is needed to cleanse the Church?  We will have to wait and see.

The person in the pew is angry with the Holy Father, the Cardinals, and Bishops for how they have allowed this situation to develop.  The pope needs to clean house.  Those that caused this scandal to extend itself must be removed from office and depending on the degree of guilt perhaps they should be removed from the priesthood as well.  We cannot tolerate further abuse of the laity or seminarians or anyone by clergy.  We also cannot condone or excuse the covering up of the crime by those who are entrusted to be our leaders. 

Pope Francis, you must step into the shoes of Peter and take command now.  Please do not wait because your flock is fearful of the wolves that surround them. 

Remember the Poor Souls in Purgatory this week in all of your prayers.