Pope arrives in Chile to bolster battered Church credibility

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

#WORLD NEWS JANUARY 15, 2018 / 5:28 PM / UPDATED 3 HOURS AGO

Pope arrives in Chile to bolster battered Church credibility

Dave Sherwood, Philip Pullella
4 MIN READ

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Pope Francis arrived in Chile on Monday to start a trip aimed at bolstering the credibility of a local Church battered by a sexual abuse crisis.

Tens of thousands of people chanting “Viva Papa Francisco” lined the streets of his route from the airport, where he was greeted by President Michelle Bachelet, to the Vatican embassy, his official residence for three days before he moves on to Peru.

-snip-

Despite the festive atmosphere, Francis faces protests from Catholics upset with his 2015 appointment of Bishop Juan Barros to head the small diocese of Osorno, a city south of the Chilean capital.

Barros has been accused of protecting his former mentor, Father Fernando Karadima, whom a Vatican investigation in 2011 found guilty of abusing teenage boys over many years. Karadima has denied the allegations and Barros said he was unaware of any wrongdoing.

That scandal, which has gripped Chile, and growing secularization, has hurt the Church.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pope-chile/pope-arrives-in-chile-to-bolster-battered-church-credibility-idUSKBN1F42P3

[AtheistCrusader]

1. Oh, you can be sure he'll have more opinions than just abuse. As in November's

Politique et société : un dialogue inédit interview, he'll cover the gamut of regressive right wing bullshit. Betcha a dollar. Since Chile recently legalized same-sex-marriage, you can be certain he'll bring it up, and shit all over it.

"Pope Francis: What can we think of marriage between people of the same sex? “Matrimony” is a historical word. Always, in humanity, and not just in the Church, it was a man and a woman. It’s not possible to change it just like that […] It’s not possible to change it. It is part of nature. That’s how it is. Let us call it, then, “civil unions.” Let us not play with truths.
It’s true that behind all this we find gender ideology. In books, kids learn that it’s possible to change one’s sex. Could gender, to be a woman or to be a man, be an option and not a fact of nature? This leads to this error.
Let us call things by their names. Matrimony is between a man and a woman. This is the precise term. Let us call the same-sex union a “civil union.”"

SEPARATE BUT EQUAL

A real spiritual leader for the modern world, eh?

[trotsky]

2. What would boost the RCC's credibility...

is to actually crack down on abusers and the culture of abuse.

But hey, send Pope Photo-Op. That'll smooth things over.