#carlos is a child of divorce agenda

[bluespring864]

Our two big fierce rivals with a long amicable chat at practice (during which Nole for some reason felt the need to specify that they are not taking showers together?!)

source: Eurosport Tennis

[bluespring864]

you forgot the other dad ;-)

father and son

[logansargey]

Hii, I saw your fic and I thought that the name is kinda familiar and I was righttt! I read through your blog and I agree with u esp with the ah l*stappen. For me, I don’t really get the lore of the relationship. And tendency is that they usually drag other drivers to further their uhm visions ✨ but not really in a good way.

I am Carlos girlie so it really makes me sad that usually in the blogs that I encountered, altho not only that ship, Carlos is like always the bad guy or they put him in a bad light? I mean it is RPF and I just avoided them but to push it thru real life too is weird 😭. Like i get that u dont like him but to push that agenda when the guy didn’t even do anything and Carlos has both good relationship with them so yea 😞

So u can imagine my frustration when that clip with Checo and Max went viral 😾. Like Checo and Carlos are close friends in the paddok, they said it in an interview, what are u on about 😭.

Anyway i want to ask ur ahh opinion about charlos and carcar? I think you already answered versainz. Im a big fan of them too!! Well anything with carlos really 😸

Sorry it might be long 😅

Anon, you can ask me any long question and I'll read all of it. Also I love Carlos so I'm so glad I get to talk about him. This is also kinda long but I wanted to give my full opinion. ALSO YES ABOUT THE FIC!! I LOVE FLORENCE AND HOPED I WOULD FIND SOMEONE THAT KNOWS THEM

So here are my opinions on the things you've asked me:

1. Charlos: I seriously love them. But recently they remind me of a divorced couple. (I'm a child of divorce. I'm talking about Charlos btw. Not actually a child of divorce) And it HURTS!!! if you told me a year or two ago that I'd be going through this, I'd laugh in your face. But I love Charlos and the angst, the humor, and the clinginess. They're honestly so cute. They're not my fav (we all know who my fav is) but they definitely made it to my top 7. But also, I feel like Carlos fans and Charles fans have different opinions abt Charlos. Most Carlos fans love it and adore it, while most Charles fans ignore Carlos and seem to make him a bad person and compare the two. (Which driver was the only non rb winner last year?)

2. Carcar: IT'S HONESTLY SO GOOD!! It's such a random ship bc it came out of nowhere and we all started loving it. The jokes that are made (check Oscar's tt comment section) are so funny. It's probably in my top 5 because I love random funny ships like them. I also love the whole "we share a mutual good friend who wants us to get along but we low-key don't think we ever will" type trope. But Carlos has come forward and talked about their "rivalry" or lack of, I should say. So I approve of Carcar

3. Versainz: idk if I have talked about them, but if I have, oh well I'm gonna talk about them again. Versainz is the best ever. I miss them being teammates and the whole "we're both nepo-babies that need to make our dad's proud and we're fighting for the same seat" I WISH Carlos got that seat, tho I'm happy for Checo. Ily, Checo 🫶🏼 Versainz gives me that whole "we're low-key in love with each other but can't act on it bc we both have trauma and internalized homophobia." vibe and I love it lmaoo. THE FICS ARE SO GOOD TOO!!

anyways anon, hope I gave you the answers you were looking for and if you have anymore questions, you can ask and I'll gladly answer.

[theconservativebrief]

Reeling from new claims of unfettered sexual abuse at the hands of priests and cover-ups by high-ranking officials, the Catholic Church is facing one of its most serious and divisive crises of the 21st century.

Last weekend, a former Vatican official, ex-papal nuncio Carlo Maria Viganò, published an incendiary open letter calling for Francis to resign for willfully turning a blind eye to ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s decades of sexual abuse and harassment against junior seminarians under his authority. (McCarrick has also been accused of abusing two minors; Viganò does not make any mention of those cases and does not imply Francis knew about them.)

Viganò claims that Francis’s predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, had imposed sanctions against McCarrick, mandating that he carry out the remainder of his life in prayer and seclusion, only for Francis to lift the ban upon ascending to the papacy in 2013. During Francis’s papacy, McCarrick served as a trusted Vatican adviser and influential voice on both internal church appointments and global affairs.

Viganò’s letter contains serious charges. Fundamentally, it alleges that Francis was knowingly negligent in dealing with known abuse by a major Catholic figure. But reading between the lines, it’s also possible to see in Viganò’s letter a wider political concern: the accusation that Pope Francis’s liberal ideology and lax attitude toward homosexuality fostered a culture of sexual abuse, propped up by a gay lobby operating at the highest echelons of the Vatican.

Viganò’s open letter exists in a much wider political context, in which both Vatican officials and Catholic conservative intellectuals — two groups that have historically been protective of the church’s secrecy — are willing to use the latest round of abuse accusations as an opportunity to speak out against Pope Francis. In the aftermath of both the McCarrick case and the Pennsylvania report implicating hundreds of priests in the abuse of more than 1,000 children over several decades, arch-conservatives like Viganò have painted the picture of a church dominated by a shadowy progressive gay lobby, ruled by networks of blackmail and sexual favors, and willing to turn a blind eye to systemic abuse. The McCarrick case in particular — which, in a departure from many other abuse cases, predominately involved allegations of sexual harassment of adults — has been a particular lightning rod for this kind of discourse.

While it’s important not to conflate the very real concerns about Pope Francis’s response to the child sex abuse crisis with mere Vatican partisanship, it’s also important to recognize that the current crisis at the top of the Catholic hierarchy also has a political dimension. As Massimo Faggioli, a professor at Villanova University and a frequent commentator on Catholic issues, told Vox last week, conservatives are using the scandal as an “opportunity to reform the Church from abuses as a counter-revolution … against the Church of Vatican II itself.” (Vatican II, which took place from 1962 to 1965, was a major church council that critics say moved the church in an undesirably “progressive” direction.) Such dissent, he says, would not have been imaginable under a more traditional pope like John Paul II or Benedict XVI. But because of Francis’s perceived liberal agenda, conservative Catholics are seizing an opportunity to weaken what they see as a pro-Francis progressive bloc within the Church hierarchy.

And perhaps most importantly, this politicking loses sight of the fact that thousands of people around the world were abused as children over the course of several decades by the priests in their communities, whom their parents and families trusted.

Since the beginning, Pope Francis’s papacy has galvanized conservative ranks within the Vatican hierarchy. Francis’s perceived laxity when it comes to LGBTQ people, as well as divorced-and-remarried couples, has worried conservatives, who have often characterized him as a dictatorial reformer running roughshod over tradition in order to move the church unilaterally toward progressivism.

One of those conservatives was Viganò. Back in 2016, Viganò was dismissed from his post as papal nuncio (essentially an ambassador) after having brokered a meeting, without Francis’s knowledge or consent, between the pope and Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk lionized for refusing to sign marriage certificates for same-sex couples.

While Viganò’s allegations about Francis’s knowledge of McCarrick’s harassment of other adults may indeed be accurate (Francis has refused to confirm or deny his claims), his letter is nevertheless rooted in the wider language of the Vatican culture wars. He not only accuses Francis of knowing about McCarrick, but also indicts more broadly “the homosexual networks present in the Church,” which, he says, “must be eradicated.”

Viganò is far from the only Vatican insider to speak critically of Francis. Several longtime critics of Francis, such as Cardinal Raymond Burke, have raised their concerns about Francis through other open letters. For instance, a group of four senior cardinals signed the “dubia,” a list of objections to Francis’s 2016 apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, which opened the door to granting divorced-and-remarried couples communion. In a statement in response to Viganò’s letter, Burke wrote, “The corruption and filth which have entered into the life of the Church must be purified at their roots,” and then called for a full investigation of the allegations.

Michael Sean Winters, a columnist for the National Catholic Reporter, told the Washington Post that he believed “we are a step away from schism.”

Francis has long attracted ire from conservative critics for his relatively moderate stance toward homosexuality. While he has always formally maintained the Catholic doctrinal line that homosexual behavior is a sin, some of his more off-the-cuff remarks to journalists have suggested a personal reticence to render judgment. He famously asked a journalist on a press flight “who am I to judge” gay people, and may have told a gay survivor of clerical sex abuse that God loved him the way he was.

Viganò’s conflation of same-sex attraction, homosexual activity, sexual harassment of adults, and child abuse is common among some of Francis’s more conservative critics. Because most of the allegations about McCarrick are about his abuse of adults, and because it seems clear that McCarrick’s behavior toward adults was something of an open secret within the Vatican hierarchy (but not, it’s important to note, with minors), this case in particular has galvanized conservative discourse about gay and bisexual priests.

For example, in an email interview with Vox conducted shortly after the McCarrick scandal broke in July, American Conservative columnist Rod Dreher (a former Catholic, now a member of the Eastern Orthodox Church) stressed that progressive influence — and, in particular, gay influence — within the Vatican was central to the Catholic sex abuse crisis.

“The predatory culture is — or was at that time — so entrenched, and so ravenous,” he wrote, “that a young gay man who intends to live celibacy will be walking into a lion’s den. If he is drawn into sexual misconduct, he will likely be permanently compromised, because the tribe never forgets. That’s how this works.”

Dreher’s remarks are representative of a wider conservative stance on the sex abuse crisis, a stance that is largely inseparable from attitudes toward Francis’s papacy: A gay cabal (often, but not invariably, associated with the progressive wing of the church) is protecting its own — including abusers — and Francis is allowing this because of his progressive sympathies. (That said, Dreher has pointed out in a recent column that the “left-right framework is fairly useless as a guide to understanding matters” and noted that “conservative” cardinals, such as Bernard Law, have also been caught up in clerical sex abuse scandals.)

Dreher is right to point out that (consensual) sexual activity is more common among priests than the Vatican might like to admit. Within the Catholic Church, priests are supposed to be totally celibate, regardless of sexual orientation. Furthermore, same-sex attraction itself is not understood to be sinful — the Catholic Catechism, the church’s official teaching document, formally deems it “intrinsically disordered,” but acting on that attraction is considered sinful. Officially, even priests with a homosexual orientation who remain celibate are barred from ministry, something that contributes to the rhetorical conflation of pedophilia and homosexuality that many conservatives espouse.

According to research by Richard Sipe, however, it’s estimated that about half of all priests are sexually active at some point in their lives. He also suggests that up to 30 percent of Catholic priests are gay, and about half of these are sexually active.

Dreher’s portrait of an institution subject to systemic corruption based on sexuality, therefore, is not entirely unfair. In a profession as hierarchical, as insular, and as self-protective as Catholic ministry, this culture of sexual activity and secrecy can easily create toxic conditions under which professional advancement becomes linked to sexual involvement, even as participants resist coming forward out of threats to their own reputation, including the threat of being outed themselves.

In an email interview with Vox last month, Miguel Diaz, former Ambassador to the Holy See and a professor at Loyola University in Chicago, argued that a lack of clarity within the Vatican hierarchy about the relationship between homosexuality, abuse, and pedophilia has clouded the Vatican’s ability to meaningfully reform after the Catholic sex abuse crisis.

“What we need is nothing less than for Church leaders to enact actions and promote policies more consistent with a healthier, psychologically well-informed, and theologically sound approach to human sexuality,” he told Vox. “The elephants in the room, namely, heterosexism and homophobia, and how these cultural systems relate to … the abuse of ministerial power must be dismantled for the sake of all.”

Conservative opposition to Pope Francis has been fomenting for years.

While conservative critics of Francis have criticized a number of his “progressive” policies, including his implied tolerance for LGBTQ people and his critiques of capitalism, most conservative opposition to Francis up to now has been based on his handling of divorced-and-remarried couples. Under Catholic teaching, divorce is not permitted, and Catholics who remarry after divorce are therefore understood to be in a state of sin that precludes their ability to take communion. However, Pope Francis’s 2016 apostolic exhortation, Amoris Laetitia, contained a footnote suggesting that it was up to individual parish priests to make a decision on whether or not remarried couples in their parish should be allowed communion.

To Francis’s critics, this was an underhanded way of changing the Church’s practice on divorce and remarriage while leaving its official policy officially intact. A group of conservative Cardinals and clergy submitted a list of dubia, or doubts, to Francis, in late 2016, as a form of public protest; he has yet to respond to them.

However, the sex abuse crisis has opened up Francis to new channels of attack.

Until this point, Francis’s legacy on the clerical sex abuse scandal has been fairly positive. He has met with abuse victims worldwide, and frequently spoken of the necessity of the Church atoning for its past. He did attract negative press last year for dismissing accusations against a Chilean bishop accused of participating in an abuse cover-up as “calumny.” Ultimately, though, he apologized for his remarks, and pressured the entire Chilean bishopric to resign.

However, the allegations against him — that he knowingly lifted sanctions on McCarrick whose abuse of adults (although, again, not children) was common knowledge — represent an unprecedented level of seriousness. While Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI was accused of having once overseen a transfer of a German pedophile priest into therapy, the alleged incident happened in the 1980’s, well before Benedict became pope.

Right now, however, Francis must face a more immediate goal: how, and if, to address Viganò’s accusations. While Viganò called upon Francis to resign — an incredibly incendiary and rare statement to make about a sitting pope — it’s unclear how likely this would be, even if Viganò’s allegations were found to be true.

These days, CEOs, university presidents, and public figures resign from their posts as a way to take responsibility for negligence or wrongdoing that occurred on their watch. Papal resignation, though, is exceedingly rare — popes are believed to be chosen by God to serve for the duration of their lives. Before Francis’s predecessor, Benedict XVI, resigned in 2013, for reasons that have never fully been made public (he cited ill health, although many Vatican-watchers have doubted this, given that Benedict remains in decent health now), the last Pope to resign was Gregory XII in 1415, and only a handful of popes have done so before him.

For Francis to resign so quickly after Benedict, therefore, would set a discomfiting new precedent for the Catholic Church: that the papacy was no longer an automatic lifelong role, which could in turn weaken the Catholic tradition that the pontiff is, fundamentally, chosen by God. Given the seriousness of that precedent, a resignation is unlikely. But that doesn’t mean that Francis’s political enemies will see in this scandal an opportunity to pressure his allies into resignation, nor that they won’t see his weakness as an opportunity to advocate against what they see as his dangerous “progressivism” more generally.

Meanwhile, few solutions have been proposed to rectify the abuse of countless children and adults over the course of several decades. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ issued a charter in 2002 which mandates that all allegations of abuse from 2002 on, be handed over to law enforcement. Church officials throughout the country say this process has been successful in addressing more recent cases.

Still, there have been few codified, centralized efforts at addressing the legacy of the scale of abuse prior to that. Likewise, Francis’s recent 2,000-word apology for the Church’s history of sex abuse contained few concrete policy solutions, something that has frustrated some advocates. Marie Collins, an Irish clerical abuse survivor, recently told Catholic website Crux that she felt the Church lacked transparency and clarity in dealing with the crisis.

“The only thing that will restore respect,” she said, “is to see those men properly dealt with by the Church in an open and clear manner, and to have consequences for their actions that are strong and public. They need to prove that the Church is serious in cutting [abuse] out of the Church.”

In his book To Change the Church, published in March, New York Times columnist Ross Douthat made the case that, even before this latest round of sex abuse revelations, Francis’s divisive papacy threatened to seriously damage the unity of the Church. The current battle between “progressive” and “traditionalist” Catholics, though, threatens not only to further weaken any sense of unity, but to alienate rank-and-file believers, while miring the Church’s response to a crisis of sexual abuse in destructive political partisanship.

Ultimately this church infighting between “liberal” and “conservative” camps may hinder the it from the wider goal of protecting children and helping survivors heal by acknowledging abuse and repairing negligence. As clerical abuse survivor Peter Isley told the New York Times, “This is infighting between curia factions that are exploiting the abuse crisis and victims of clergy sexual abuse as leverage in the struggle for church power. The sexual abuse crisis is not about whether a bishop is a liberal or a conservative. It is about protecting children.”

Original Source -> Catholic Church insiders are calling for Pope Francis to resign. Here’s why.

via The Conservative Brief

[raikkonenvettels]

ok this is taken directly from my doc so it’s not well written but there it is (oh yeah and btw this is VERY angsty. sorry about that)

directly inspired by a fic from paradox (People We All Take Love For Granted on ao3 btw), literally just a what if simi did not say sorry to each other after fighting badly (now with abo dynamics!!!!!!)

what happened? kimi took his things from the bedroom he shared with seb and ran away

(fun fact: seb did not sleep the whole night bc he had a bad feeling something bad would happen. instead of that, he just observed Kimi the whole night, regretting everything he said and planning to say sorry. it’s when he finally feel asleep from pure exhaustion that kimi ran away)

well they stopped talking for a year after that

that is set in 2013 so seb won his last championship and then sucked for a year bc of personal stuff (aka depression from loss of a mate)

but in the end of 2014 they apologized to each other bc they were going to be teammates the next year so they didn’t want any tensions in the team and yeah they reconcile

but they don’t get back together bc they both assume (incorrectly) that the other doesn’t want them back (for different reasons. kimi bc he thinks he is not good enough alpha for seb after what he said, and seb bc he still thinks kimi should and does hate him after all he has said and that the Finn deserves better)

they are still very much in love and also they are true mates so they couldn’t be with anyone else even if they tried (they weren’t together for that long and when they discovered they were true mates it was too late and they were already broken up. after reconciling, since they both thought the other seemed ok without them, they just assumed (again, incorrectly) that the true mates thing wasn’t mutual (aka seb thought kimi was his true mate but he wasn’t kimi and vice versa. did I mention they are complete idiots here? just saying…)

(they eventually get back together in 2022/2023 thanks to their grid kids and particularly charles (with the special help of lewis) ofc bc he doesn’t want to be a child of divorce anymore he wants them to be happy together. also they are the ones that got him together with carlos so he is grateful and wants to repay the favor bc he wants to)

seb is an artist in this (i believe in the artist seb agenda bc it’s TRUE). he has a special room in the pack house (yes there is an f1 pack. guess the pack alpha. yes it’s kimi btw) that is locked and no one can go in (they don’t also out of respect bc seb is practically the pack omega anyway so he is important™️. also everyone knows that if you disrespect seb, kimi WILL kill you for that) where he paints and keeps all his paintings

he loves realism, but also has a more cartoonish style that he doesn’t use much

he loves painting his pack members (esp kimi of course). he gifted charles and carlos a painting of them together for their anniversary too

he loves painting kimi more than everybody else and is on a personal quest of drawing him perfectly

one day, when he was particularly sad after a rough night, he decided to paint a scene from a wedding. well that became a portrait of him and kimi getting married (it’s still his favorite painting to this day. and also when he was finished he cried a lot. he has it displayed in the central wall of the room)

kimi has a lot of tattoos (drawn by him) for seb on his body (a sunflower and a forget-me-not on his stomach, a bee on his back and a sun with an “s” inside on his heart). seb does not know about them nor does he know they are for him af course

seb has earrings (don’t ask, just vibe with it) and they are a sun and a moon

seb still has a lot of polaroids (bc he is a big dork and we all know that he would have that) from when he and kimi where together. they are the inspiration for his painting a lot of the times and they are some of his most precious possessions 

also. he still has a kimi scented lotus sweater that he stole and never returned. he uses it for comfort when he sleeps and also on his heats

seb is still very guilty about everything that happened. he feels like shit about it and regrets it every single day (the biggest reason why he hates his younger self is bc of this) but he also says he deserves not to be happy ever again. after all, he says, he dug his hole and now he has to lie in it

despite not being together they are of course the pack parents and everyone recognizes them as such

they have heats and ruts not at the same time so they still try to take care of each other during them (like with food and if the other wants to talk to be distracted)

this also happens when they are sick (aka they take care of each other and whatnot)

also they have used scent blockers since the breakup (for obvious reasons)

to end on a happier not tho, the way they get back together is very romantic!!!

it happens after seb, once again, tries to set Kimi up with someone and fails. they are in the garden at night (kimi’s idea bc he knew seb would love it) and he says to Kimi that he just wants the Finn to be happy with somebody bc he doesn’t want him to be alone

but ofc Kimi tells him not to worry and that he doesn’t want anybody

when seb asks why, Kimi wants to lie at first but then he thinks about something lewis told him a lot of time before (aka that seb is in love with him too and that he should spot being blind) and he thinks “fuck it, let’s do it”

cue extremely romantic love confession wheeze they both cry a lot but they hug and kiss it better

(that night they cuddle each other in bed while they talk. when they wake up in the morning they cry some more and get down with the rest of the pack. lewis is sooooo smug about the whole thing. charles cries and hugs both of them super hard. cue pack hug!!!!)

hey em!!!

read you were bored and wanted to read omegaverse, so i thought maybe you’d like to read my omegaverse au? only if you’re interested of course 😅

(also we need more ABO in this fandom in my opinion but shhhh)

Ooooh yes please!

[blogcompetnetall]

Nature Vatican Power Struggle Bursts Into Open as Conservatives Pounce

Nature Vatican Power Struggle Bursts Into Open as Conservatives Pounce Nature Vatican Power Struggle Bursts Into Open as Conservatives Pounce http://www.nature-business.com/nature-vatican-power-struggle-bursts-into-open-as-conservatives-pounce/

Nature

Image

Pope Francis meeting with journalists as he returned to Rome on Sunday from his trip to Ireland.CreditCreditPool photo by Gregorio Borgias

ROME — Since the start of his papacy, Francis has infuriated Catholic traditionalists as he tries to nurture a more welcoming church and shift it away from culture war issues, whether abortion or homosexuality. “Who am I to judge?” the pope famously said, when asked about gay priests.

Just how angry his political and doctrinal enemies are became clear this weekend, when a caustic letter published by the Vatican’s former top diplomat in the United States blamed a “homosexual current” in the Vatican hierarchy for sexual abuse. It called for Francis’ resignation, accusing him of covering up for a disgraced cardinal, Theodore E. McCarrick.

With the letter — released in the middle of the pope’s visit to Ireland — an ideologically motivated opposition has weaponized the church’s sex abuse crisis to threaten not only Francis’ agenda but his entire papacy. At the very least, it has returned the issue of homosexuality in the Roman Catholic Church, which many conservatives are convinced lies behind the abuse crisis, to the center of debate.

Vatican intrigues and power struggles are nothing new, but they usually remain within the medieval walls or fly over the heads of the Catholic faithful around the globe.

This battle, however, is being waged in an exceptionally open and brutal manner. It is fueled by a modern media age, the pope’s reluctance to silence critics, and an issue — child sexual abuse — that perhaps more than any other has prompted defections among the faithful.

The accusations in the letter remain unsubstantiated. Asked Sunday night about their validity, Francis said he would not dignify them with a response.

But they are serious, and the pope’s vague answer has only heightened public interest, particularly in the core accusation — that he was told about Mr. McCarrick’s history of sexual relations with seminarians and did nothing about it.

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Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, center, the former top Vatican diplomat in the United States, in Portland, Me., in 2014.CreditPool photo by Gabe Souza

“It’s a serious problem,” said Sandro Magister, a veteran Vatican observer at L’Espresso magazine, who said the remarkable public broadside was indicative of enormous frustration among conservatives toward Francis. He doubted whether Francis, who has essentially ignored such salvos in the past, would be able to do so this time.

“With this issue,” Mr. Magister said, “the public impact is much stronger, and on this ground he is rather vulnerable.”

Francis’ non-answer is in keeping with his reluctance to give oxygen to a small — if influential and noisy — group of conservative prelates and writers aligned with the author of the letter, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the former top Vatican diplomat in the United States.

Francis has removed from office or sidelined ideological opponents in the bureaucracy of the church, but he has also been more willing than his predecessors to allow open debate and even dissent. Many have challenged him, in sometimes coarse language, for his openness to making some church practices less rigid, among them the exclusion of divorced and remarried parishioners from receiving Communion.

On Monday, Francis’ supporters shrugged off the letter as another desperate attack from frustrated conservatives still unaccustomed to not getting their way. They expressed confidence that its accusations would be disproved.

Some abuse survivors, who have been pressing Pope Francis to take concrete action about the crisis instead of just offering apologies, however heartfelt, argued that Archbishop Viganò’s letter exploited the abuse for political gain. The letter did not, they said, show particular concern about the plight of the church’s children.

The child sex abuse scandal has riveted the attention of the world’s Catholics, but the shift in the church’s direction under Francis has enlivened his enemies. They believe that the pope’s message of inclusion is undermining longstanding church rules, and that it is leading to confusion and perhaps schism.

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Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of South Africa has blamed homosexuality for the Roman Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandals.CreditMarco Longari/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The explosion of conservative Catholic blogs — many in the United States — in an era of lightning-fast modern media, as well as the strategically timed release of the letter combined to make a potent rear-guard action against the 81-year-old pontiff.

“Let us be clear that they are still allegations, but as your shepherd I find them to be credible,” the conservative Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Tex., wrote in an open letter to his diocese. “I will lend my voice in whatever way necessary to call for this investigation and urge that its findings demand accountability of all found to be culpable even at the highest levels of the church.”

If Francis thought that the debate over homosexuality in the church was behind him, the events of this week suggest otherwise.

“The homosexual networks present in the Church must be eradicated,” Archbishop Viganò wrote, arguing that it was the root cause of abuse.

The abuse scandal had already set off a fierce debate in Catholic journals and across churches. Some critics of the church have blamed the vows of celibacy, arguing that suppressing the human libido can lead to pedophilia and rape.

At the Conference of Catholic Families, a rival, conservative event to the Vatican’s World Meeting of Families in Dublin this past weekend, organizers found the pope’s recent condemnation of abuse unsatisfactory because he did not call out homosexuality. That, they say, has turned seminaries into “cesspits.”

Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of South Africa has also blamed homosexuality for the scandal. And Cardinal Raymond Burke, a high-ranking Vatican conservative and a leading critic of the pope, has denounced what he says is “a very grave problem of a homosexual culture in the church.” The problem, he said, is not only among the clergy “but even within the hierarchy, which needs to be purified at the root.”

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Cardinal Raymond Burke, a high-ranking Vatican conservative, has spoken of what he says is “a very grave problem of a homosexual culture in the church.”CreditAndrew Medichini/Associated Press

In 2005, the Vatican stated that even celibate gays should not be priests, and instructed church leaders to reject seminary applications from men who “practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called ‘gay culture.’”

Critics of Francis believe that a meeting in Rome of bishops from around the world in October on the theme of youth could become a battleground. They want to make sure the church’s opposition to homosexuality is on the radar should the issue of sex abuse come up, as it now certainly will.

In May, Francis reportedly told Italian bishops that when it came to potentially gay seminary applicants, “if there’s even the slightest doubt, better to not accept them.”

Even so, Archbishop Viganò and his allies have argued that the pope and his supporters are too accepting of gays in the church and that they willfully ignore that the vast majority of victims of sexual abuse by priests are male.

Most experts reject the conflation of homosexuality and pedophilia as a dangerous route to bigotry against gays. Outside the church, the belief has been widely discredited as retrograde.

But it still has traction in the Vatican. Many here believe that an investigation by three cardinals following the 2012 Vatileaks scandal — based on the leaked memos of the same Archbishop Viganò who wrote Sunday’s letter — revealed a gay lobby working in the Holy See and that their report contributed to the retirement of Pope Benedict XVI.

The report remains a closely held Vatican secret, but in his letter, Archbishop Viganò included a slew of names and targeted allies of Francis who share the pope’s views.

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Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago, with Pope Francis at the Vatican in 2016.CreditGregorio Borgia/Associated Press

He said Cardinal Blase J. Cupich of Chicago was “blinded by his pro-gay ideology.” And he took issue with the assertion of Cardinal Cupich, a past president of the Committee on Protection of Children and Young People, “that the main problem in the crisis of sexual abuse by clergy is not homosexuality, and that affirming this is only a way of diverting attention from the real problem, which is clericalism.”

In an interview on Sunday, Cardinal Cupich said: “I think it is wrong to scapegoat gays and homosexuals as though there is a greater likelihood that gay people are going to offend children than straight people. That data doesn’t bear that out.”

The Viganò letter also lamented that the Vatican had brought on the Jesuit priest James Martin, who has written a book on how to make gay Catholics feel more welcome in the Church, as a consultor of the Secretariat for Communications.

The church under Francis, Archbishop Viganò writes, has “chosen to corrupt the young people who will soon gather in Dublin for the World Meeting of Families,” by inviting Father Martin to speak there.

In an interview, Father Martin said, “The reason it seems like all gay priests are abusers is that there are no public counterexamples of healthy celibate gay priests, because most gay priests are afraid to come out in this poisonous environment.”

He rejected the notion of gay priests as more likely to commit child abuse as scientifically wrong and “simply a stereotype.” He added, “It’s all about fear.”

Even as the controversy swirled around him, Pope Francis worked to allay that fear Sunday night.

One of the last questions on the papal plane was what a Catholic parent should say to a gay son or daughter.

“Do not condemn,” Francis said. “Dialogue. Understand. Make space for the son or daughter; make space so they express themselves.”

He suggested a conversation the parent might have with a child, offering: “You are my son. You are my daughter, as you are. I am your father, or mother. Let’s talk.”

A version of this article appears in print on

, on Page

A

8

of the New York edition

with the headline:

Francis Takes High Road As Conservatives Pounce, Taking Criticisms Public

. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

Read More | https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/27/world/europe/vatican-power-struggle-bursts-into-open-as-conservatives-pounce.html | https://www.nytimes.com/by/jason-horowitz

Nature Vatican Power Struggle Bursts Into Open as Conservatives Pounce, in 2018-08-28 07:11:33

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Image

Pope Francis meeting with journalists as he returned to Rome on Sunday from his trip to Ireland.CreditCreditPool photo by Gregorio Borgias

ROME — Since the start of his papacy, Francis has infuriated Catholic traditionalists as he tries to nurture a more welcoming church and shift it away from culture war issues, whether abortion or homosexuality. “Who am I to judge?” the pope famously said, when asked about gay priests.

Just how angry his political and doctrinal enemies are became clear this weekend, when a caustic letter published by the Vatican’s former top diplomat in the United States blamed a “homosexual current” in the Vatican hierarchy for sexual abuse. It called for Francis’ resignation, accusing him of covering up for a disgraced cardinal, Theodore E. McCarrick.

With the letter — released in the middle of the pope’s visit to Ireland — an ideologically motivated opposition has weaponized the church’s sex abuse crisis to threaten not only Francis’ agenda but his entire papacy. At the very least, it has returned the issue of homosexuality in the Roman Catholic Church, which many conservatives are convinced lies behind the abuse crisis, to the center of debate.

Vatican intrigues and power struggles are nothing new, but they usually remain within the medieval walls or fly over the heads of the Catholic faithful around the globe.

This battle, however, is being waged in an exceptionally open and brutal manner. It is fueled by a modern media age, the pope’s reluctance to silence critics, and an issue — child sexual abuse — that perhaps more than any other has prompted defections among the faithful.

The accusations in the letter remain unsubstantiated. Asked Sunday night about their validity, Francis said he would not dignify them with a response.

But they are serious, and the pope’s vague answer has only heightened public interest, particularly in the core accusation — that he was told about Mr. McCarrick’s history of sexual relations with seminarians and did nothing about it.

Image

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, center, the former top Vatican diplomat in the United States, in Portland, Me., in 2014.CreditPool photo by Gabe Souza

“It’s a serious problem,” said Sandro Magister, a veteran Vatican observer at L’Espresso magazine, who said the remarkable public broadside was indicative of enormous frustration among conservatives toward Francis. He doubted whether Francis, who has essentially ignored such salvos in the past, would be able to do so this time.

“With this issue,” Mr. Magister said, “the public impact is much stronger, and on this ground he is rather vulnerable.”

Francis’ non-answer is in keeping with his reluctance to give oxygen to a small — if influential and noisy — group of conservative prelates and writers aligned with the author of the letter, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the former top Vatican diplomat in the United States.

Francis has removed from office or sidelined ideological opponents in the bureaucracy of the church, but he has also been more willing than his predecessors to allow open debate and even dissent. Many have challenged him, in sometimes coarse language, for his openness to making some church practices less rigid, among them the exclusion of divorced and remarried parishioners from receiving Communion.

On Monday, Francis’ supporters shrugged off the letter as another desperate attack from frustrated conservatives still unaccustomed to not getting their way. They expressed confidence that its accusations would be disproved.

Some abuse survivors, who have been pressing Pope Francis to take concrete action about the crisis instead of just offering apologies, however heartfelt, argued that Archbishop Viganò’s letter exploited the abuse for political gain. The letter did not, they said, show particular concern about the plight of the church’s children.

The child sex abuse scandal has riveted the attention of the world’s Catholics, but the shift in the church’s direction under Francis has enlivened his enemies. They believe that the pope’s message of inclusion is undermining longstanding church rules, and that it is leading to confusion and perhaps schism.

Image

Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of South Africa has blamed homosexuality for the Roman Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandals.CreditMarco Longari/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The explosion of conservative Catholic blogs — many in the United States — in an era of lightning-fast modern media, as well as the strategically timed release of the letter combined to make a potent rear-guard action against the 81-year-old pontiff.

“Let us be clear that they are still allegations, but as your shepherd I find them to be credible,” the conservative Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Tex., wrote in an open letter to his diocese. “I will lend my voice in whatever way necessary to call for this investigation and urge that its findings demand accountability of all found to be culpable even at the highest levels of the church.”

If Francis thought that the debate over homosexuality in the church was behind him, the events of this week suggest otherwise.

“The homosexual networks present in the Church must be eradicated,” Archbishop Viganò wrote, arguing that it was the root cause of abuse.

The abuse scandal had already set off a fierce debate in Catholic journals and across churches. Some critics of the church have blamed the vows of celibacy, arguing that suppressing the human libido can lead to pedophilia and rape.

At the Conference of Catholic Families, a rival, conservative event to the Vatican’s World Meeting of Families in Dublin this past weekend, organizers found the pope’s recent condemnation of abuse unsatisfactory because he did not call out homosexuality. That, they say, has turned seminaries into “cesspits.”

Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of South Africa has also blamed homosexuality for the scandal. And Cardinal Raymond Burke, a high-ranking Vatican conservative and a leading critic of the pope, has denounced what he says is “a very grave problem of a homosexual culture in the church.” The problem, he said, is not only among the clergy “but even within the hierarchy, which needs to be purified at the root.”

Image

Cardinal Raymond Burke, a high-ranking Vatican conservative, has spoken of what he says is “a very grave problem of a homosexual culture in the church.”CreditAndrew Medichini/Associated Press

In 2005, the Vatican stated that even celibate gays should not be priests, and instructed church leaders to reject seminary applications from men who “practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called ‘gay culture.’”

Critics of Francis believe that a meeting in Rome of bishops from around the world in October on the theme of youth could become a battleground. They want to make sure the church’s opposition to homosexuality is on the radar should the issue of sex abuse come up, as it now certainly will.

In May, Francis reportedly told Italian bishops that when it came to potentially gay seminary applicants, “if there’s even the slightest doubt, better to not accept them.”

Even so, Archbishop Viganò and his allies have argued that the pope and his supporters are too accepting of gays in the church and that they willfully ignore that the vast majority of victims of sexual abuse by priests are male.

Most experts reject the conflation of homosexuality and pedophilia as a dangerous route to bigotry against gays. Outside the church, the belief has been widely discredited as retrograde.

But it still has traction in the Vatican. Many here believe that an investigation by three cardinals following the 2012 Vatileaks scandal — based on the leaked memos of the same Archbishop Viganò who wrote Sunday’s letter — revealed a gay lobby working in the Holy See and that their report contributed to the retirement of Pope Benedict XVI.

The report remains a closely held Vatican secret, but in his letter, Archbishop Viganò included a slew of names and targeted allies of Francis who share the pope’s views.

Image

Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago, with Pope Francis at the Vatican in 2016.CreditGregorio Borgia/Associated Press

He said Cardinal Blase J. Cupich of Chicago was “blinded by his pro-gay ideology.” And he took issue with the assertion of Cardinal Cupich, a past president of the Committee on Protection of Children and Young People, “that the main problem in the crisis of sexual abuse by clergy is not homosexuality, and that affirming this is only a way of diverting attention from the real problem, which is clericalism.”

In an interview on Sunday, Cardinal Cupich said: “I think it is wrong to scapegoat gays and homosexuals as though there is a greater likelihood that gay people are going to offend children than straight people. That data doesn’t bear that out.”

The Viganò letter also lamented that the Vatican had brought on the Jesuit priest James Martin, who has written a book on how to make gay Catholics feel more welcome in the Church, as a consultor of the Secretariat for Communications.

The church under Francis, Archbishop Viganò writes, has “chosen to corrupt the young people who will soon gather in Dublin for the World Meeting of Families,” by inviting Father Martin to speak there.

In an interview, Father Martin said, “The reason it seems like all gay priests are abusers is that there are no public counterexamples of healthy celibate gay priests, because most gay priests are afraid to come out in this poisonous environment.”

He rejected the notion of gay priests as more likely to commit child abuse as scientifically wrong and “simply a stereotype.” He added, “It’s all about fear.”

Even as the controversy swirled around him, Pope Francis worked to allay that fear Sunday night.

One of the last questions on the papal plane was what a Catholic parent should say to a gay son or daughter.

“Do not condemn,” Francis said. “Dialogue. Understand. Make space for the son or daughter; make space so they express themselves.”

He suggested a conversation the parent might have with a child, offering: “You are my son. You are my daughter, as you are. I am your father, or mother. Let’s talk.”

A version of this article appears in print on

, on Page

A

8

of the New York edition

with the headline:

Francis Takes High Road As Conservatives Pounce, Taking Criticisms Public

. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

Read More | https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/27/world/europe/vatican-power-struggle-bursts-into-open-as-conservatives-pounce.html | https://www.nytimes.com/by/jason-horowitz

Nature Vatican Power Struggle Bursts Into Open as Conservatives Pounce, in 2018-08-28 07:11:33

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Nature

Image

Pope Francis meeting with journalists as he returned to Rome on Sunday from his trip to Ireland.CreditCreditPool photo by Gregorio Borgias

ROME — Since the start of his papacy, Francis has infuriated Catholic traditionalists as he tries to nurture a more welcoming church and shift it away from culture war issues, whether abortion or homosexuality. “Who am I to judge?” the pope famously said, when asked about gay priests.

Just how angry his political and doctrinal enemies are became clear this weekend, when a caustic letter published by the Vatican’s former top diplomat in the United States blamed a “homosexual current” in the Vatican hierarchy for sexual abuse. It called for Francis’ resignation, accusing him of covering up for a disgraced cardinal, Theodore E. McCarrick.

With the letter — released in the middle of the pope’s visit to Ireland — an ideologically motivated opposition has weaponized the church’s sex abuse crisis to threaten not only Francis’ agenda but his entire papacy. At the very least, it has returned the issue of homosexuality in the Roman Catholic Church, which many conservatives are convinced lies behind the abuse crisis, to the center of debate.

Vatican intrigues and power struggles are nothing new, but they usually remain within the medieval walls or fly over the heads of the Catholic faithful around the globe.

This battle, however, is being waged in an exceptionally open and brutal manner. It is fueled by a modern media age, the pope’s reluctance to silence critics, and an issue — child sexual abuse — that perhaps more than any other has prompted defections among the faithful.

The accusations in the letter remain unsubstantiated. Asked Sunday night about their validity, Francis said he would not dignify them with a response.

But they are serious, and the pope’s vague answer has only heightened public interest, particularly in the core accusation — that he was told about Mr. McCarrick’s history of sexual relations with seminarians and did nothing about it.

Image

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, center, the former top Vatican diplomat in the United States, in Portland, Me., in 2014.CreditPool photo by Gabe Souza

“It’s a serious problem,” said Sandro Magister, a veteran Vatican observer at L’Espresso magazine, who said the remarkable public broadside was indicative of enormous frustration among conservatives toward Francis. He doubted whether Francis, who has essentially ignored such salvos in the past, would be able to do so this time.

“With this issue,” Mr. Magister said, “the public impact is much stronger, and on this ground he is rather vulnerable.”

Francis’ non-answer is in keeping with his reluctance to give oxygen to a small — if influential and noisy — group of conservative prelates and writers aligned with the author of the letter, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the former top Vatican diplomat in the United States.

Francis has removed from office or sidelined ideological opponents in the bureaucracy of the church, but he has also been more willing than his predecessors to allow open debate and even dissent. Many have challenged him, in sometimes coarse language, for his openness to making some church practices less rigid, among them the exclusion of divorced and remarried parishioners from receiving Communion.

On Monday, Francis’ supporters shrugged off the letter as another desperate attack from frustrated conservatives still unaccustomed to not getting their way. They expressed confidence that its accusations would be disproved.

Some abuse survivors, who have been pressing Pope Francis to take concrete action about the crisis instead of just offering apologies, however heartfelt, argued that Archbishop Viganò’s letter exploited the abuse for political gain. The letter did not, they said, show particular concern about the plight of the church’s children.

The child sex abuse scandal has riveted the attention of the world’s Catholics, but the shift in the church’s direction under Francis has enlivened his enemies. They believe that the pope’s message of inclusion is undermining longstanding church rules, and that it is leading to confusion and perhaps schism.

Image

Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of South Africa has blamed homosexuality for the Roman Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandals.CreditMarco Longari/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The explosion of conservative Catholic blogs — many in the United States — in an era of lightning-fast modern media, as well as the strategically timed release of the letter combined to make a potent rear-guard action against the 81-year-old pontiff.

“Let us be clear that they are still allegations, but as your shepherd I find them to be credible,” the conservative Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Tex., wrote in an open letter to his diocese. “I will lend my voice in whatever way necessary to call for this investigation and urge that its findings demand accountability of all found to be culpable even at the highest levels of the church.”

If Francis thought that the debate over homosexuality in the church was behind him, the events of this week suggest otherwise.

“The homosexual networks present in the Church must be eradicated,” Archbishop Viganò wrote, arguing that it was the root cause of abuse.

The abuse scandal had already set off a fierce debate in Catholic journals and across churches. Some critics of the church have blamed the vows of celibacy, arguing that suppressing the human libido can lead to pedophilia and rape.

At the Conference of Catholic Families, a rival, conservative event to the Vatican’s World Meeting of Families in Dublin this past weekend, organizers found the pope’s recent condemnation of abuse unsatisfactory because he did not call out homosexuality. That, they say, has turned seminaries into “cesspits.”

Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of South Africa has also blamed homosexuality for the scandal. And Cardinal Raymond Burke, a high-ranking Vatican conservative and a leading critic of the pope, has denounced what he says is “a very grave problem of a homosexual culture in the church.” The problem, he said, is not only among the clergy “but even within the hierarchy, which needs to be purified at the root.”

Image

Cardinal Raymond Burke, a high-ranking Vatican conservative, has spoken of what he says is “a very grave problem of a homosexual culture in the church.”CreditAndrew Medichini/Associated Press

In 2005, the Vatican stated that even celibate gays should not be priests, and instructed church leaders to reject seminary applications from men who “practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called ‘gay culture.’”

Critics of Francis believe that a meeting in Rome of bishops from around the world in October on the theme of youth could become a battleground. They want to make sure the church’s opposition to homosexuality is on the radar should the issue of sex abuse come up, as it now certainly will.

In May, Francis reportedly told Italian bishops that when it came to potentially gay seminary applicants, “if there’s even the slightest doubt, better to not accept them.”

Even so, Archbishop Viganò and his allies have argued that the pope and his supporters are too accepting of gays in the church and that they willfully ignore that the vast majority of victims of sexual abuse by priests are male.

Most experts reject the conflation of homosexuality and pedophilia as a dangerous route to bigotry against gays. Outside the church, the belief has been widely discredited as retrograde.

But it still has traction in the Vatican. Many here believe that an investigation by three cardinals following the 2012 Vatileaks scandal — based on the leaked memos of the same Archbishop Viganò who wrote Sunday’s letter — revealed a gay lobby working in the Holy See and that their report contributed to the retirement of Pope Benedict XVI.

The report remains a closely held Vatican secret, but in his letter, Archbishop Viganò included a slew of names and targeted allies of Francis who share the pope’s views.

Image

Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago, with Pope Francis at the Vatican in 2016.CreditGregorio Borgia/Associated Press

He said Cardinal Blase J. Cupich of Chicago was “blinded by his pro-gay ideology.” And he took issue with the assertion of Cardinal Cupich, a past president of the Committee on Protection of Children and Young People, “that the main problem in the crisis of sexual abuse by clergy is not homosexuality, and that affirming this is only a way of diverting attention from the real problem, which is clericalism.”

In an interview on Sunday, Cardinal Cupich said: “I think it is wrong to scapegoat gays and homosexuals as though there is a greater likelihood that gay people are going to offend children than straight people. That data doesn’t bear that out.”

The Viganò letter also lamented that the Vatican had brought on the Jesuit priest James Martin, who has written a book on how to make gay Catholics feel more welcome in the Church, as a consultor of the Secretariat for Communications.

The church under Francis, Archbishop Viganò writes, has “chosen to corrupt the young people who will soon gather in Dublin for the World Meeting of Families,” by inviting Father Martin to speak there.

In an interview, Father Martin said, “The reason it seems like all gay priests are abusers is that there are no public counterexamples of healthy celibate gay priests, because most gay priests are afraid to come out in this poisonous environment.”

He rejected the notion of gay priests as more likely to commit child abuse as scientifically wrong and “simply a stereotype.” He added, “It’s all about fear.”

Even as the controversy swirled around him, Pope Francis worked to allay that fear Sunday night.

One of the last questions on the papal plane was what a Catholic parent should say to a gay son or daughter.

“Do not condemn,” Francis said. “Dialogue. Understand. Make space for the son or daughter; make space so they express themselves.”

He suggested a conversation the parent might have with a child, offering: “You are my son. You are my daughter, as you are. I am your father, or mother. Let’s talk.”

A version of this article appears in print on

, on Page

A

8

of the New York edition

with the headline:

Francis Takes High Road As Conservatives Pounce, Taking Criticisms Public

. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

Read More | https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/27/world/europe/vatican-power-struggle-bursts-into-open-as-conservatives-pounce.html | https://www.nytimes.com/by/jason-horowitz

Nature Vatican Power Struggle Bursts Into Open as Conservatives Pounce, in 2018-08-28 07:11:33

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Nature

Image

Pope Francis meeting with journalists as he returned to Rome on Sunday from his trip to Ireland.CreditCreditPool photo by Gregorio Borgias

ROME — Since the start of his papacy, Francis has infuriated Catholic traditionalists as he tries to nurture a more welcoming church and shift it away from culture war issues, whether abortion or homosexuality. “Who am I to judge?” the pope famously said, when asked about gay priests.

Just how angry his political and doctrinal enemies are became clear this weekend, when a caustic letter published by the Vatican’s former top diplomat in the United States blamed a “homosexual current” in the Vatican hierarchy for sexual abuse. It called for Francis’ resignation, accusing him of covering up for a disgraced cardinal, Theodore E. McCarrick.

With the letter — released in the middle of the pope’s visit to Ireland — an ideologically motivated opposition has weaponized the church’s sex abuse crisis to threaten not only Francis’ agenda but his entire papacy. At the very least, it has returned the issue of homosexuality in the Roman Catholic Church, which many conservatives are convinced lies behind the abuse crisis, to the center of debate.

Vatican intrigues and power struggles are nothing new, but they usually remain within the medieval walls or fly over the heads of the Catholic faithful around the globe.

This battle, however, is being waged in an exceptionally open and brutal manner. It is fueled by a modern media age, the pope’s reluctance to silence critics, and an issue — child sexual abuse — that perhaps more than any other has prompted defections among the faithful.

The accusations in the letter remain unsubstantiated. Asked Sunday night about their validity, Francis said he would not dignify them with a response.

But they are serious, and the pope’s vague answer has only heightened public interest, particularly in the core accusation — that he was told about Mr. McCarrick’s history of sexual relations with seminarians and did nothing about it.

Image

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, center, the former top Vatican diplomat in the United States, in Portland, Me., in 2014.CreditPool photo by Gabe Souza

“It’s a serious problem,” said Sandro Magister, a veteran Vatican observer at L’Espresso magazine, who said the remarkable public broadside was indicative of enormous frustration among conservatives toward Francis. He doubted whether Francis, who has essentially ignored such salvos in the past, would be able to do so this time.

“With this issue,” Mr. Magister said, “the public impact is much stronger, and on this ground he is rather vulnerable.”

Francis’ non-answer is in keeping with his reluctance to give oxygen to a small — if influential and noisy — group of conservative prelates and writers aligned with the author of the letter, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the former top Vatican diplomat in the United States.

Francis has removed from office or sidelined ideological opponents in the bureaucracy of the church, but he has also been more willing than his predecessors to allow open debate and even dissent. Many have challenged him, in sometimes coarse language, for his openness to making some church practices less rigid, among them the exclusion of divorced and remarried parishioners from receiving Communion.

On Monday, Francis’ supporters shrugged off the letter as another desperate attack from frustrated conservatives still unaccustomed to not getting their way. They expressed confidence that its accusations would be disproved.

Some abuse survivors, who have been pressing Pope Francis to take concrete action about the crisis instead of just offering apologies, however heartfelt, argued that Archbishop Viganò’s letter exploited the abuse for political gain. The letter did not, they said, show particular concern about the plight of the church’s children.

The child sex abuse scandal has riveted the attention of the world’s Catholics, but the shift in the church’s direction under Francis has enlivened his enemies. They believe that the pope’s message of inclusion is undermining longstanding church rules, and that it is leading to confusion and perhaps schism.

Image

Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of South Africa has blamed homosexuality for the Roman Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandals.CreditMarco Longari/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The explosion of conservative Catholic blogs — many in the United States — in an era of lightning-fast modern media, as well as the strategically timed release of the letter combined to make a potent rear-guard action against the 81-year-old pontiff.

“Let us be clear that they are still allegations, but as your shepherd I find them to be credible,” the conservative Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Tex., wrote in an open letter to his diocese. “I will lend my voice in whatever way necessary to call for this investigation and urge that its findings demand accountability of all found to be culpable even at the highest levels of the church.”

If Francis thought that the debate over homosexuality in the church was behind him, the events of this week suggest otherwise.

“The homosexual networks present in the Church must be eradicated,” Archbishop Viganò wrote, arguing that it was the root cause of abuse.

The abuse scandal had already set off a fierce debate in Catholic journals and across churches. Some critics of the church have blamed the vows of celibacy, arguing that suppressing the human libido can lead to pedophilia and rape.

At the Conference of Catholic Families, a rival, conservative event to the Vatican’s World Meeting of Families in Dublin this past weekend, organizers found the pope’s recent condemnation of abuse unsatisfactory because he did not call out homosexuality. That, they say, has turned seminaries into “cesspits.”

Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of South Africa has also blamed homosexuality for the scandal. And Cardinal Raymond Burke, a high-ranking Vatican conservative and a leading critic of the pope, has denounced what he says is “a very grave problem of a homosexual culture in the church.” The problem, he said, is not only among the clergy “but even within the hierarchy, which needs to be purified at the root.”

Image

Cardinal Raymond Burke, a high-ranking Vatican conservative, has spoken of what he says is “a very grave problem of a homosexual culture in the church.”CreditAndrew Medichini/Associated Press

In 2005, the Vatican stated that even celibate gays should not be priests, and instructed church leaders to reject seminary applications from men who “practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called ‘gay culture.’”

Critics of Francis believe that a meeting in Rome of bishops from around the world in October on the theme of youth could become a battleground. They want to make sure the church’s opposition to homosexuality is on the radar should the issue of sex abuse come up, as it now certainly will.

In May, Francis reportedly told Italian bishops that when it came to potentially gay seminary applicants, “if there’s even the slightest doubt, better to not accept them.”

Even so, Archbishop Viganò and his allies have argued that the pope and his supporters are too accepting of gays in the church and that they willfully ignore that the vast majority of victims of sexual abuse by priests are male.

Most experts reject the conflation of homosexuality and pedophilia as a dangerous route to bigotry against gays. Outside the church, the belief has been widely discredited as retrograde.

But it still has traction in the Vatican. Many here believe that an investigation by three cardinals following the 2012 Vatileaks scandal — based on the leaked memos of the same Archbishop Viganò who wrote Sunday’s letter — revealed a gay lobby working in the Holy See and that their report contributed to the retirement of Pope Benedict XVI.

The report remains a closely held Vatican secret, but in his letter, Archbishop Viganò included a slew of names and targeted allies of Francis who share the pope’s views.

Image

Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago, with Pope Francis at the Vatican in 2016.CreditGregorio Borgia/Associated Press

He said Cardinal Blase J. Cupich of Chicago was “blinded by his pro-gay ideology.” And he took issue with the assertion of Cardinal Cupich, a past president of the Committee on Protection of Children and Young People, “that the main problem in the crisis of sexual abuse by clergy is not homosexuality, and that affirming this is only a way of diverting attention from the real problem, which is clericalism.”

In an interview on Sunday, Cardinal Cupich said: “I think it is wrong to scapegoat gays and homosexuals as though there is a greater likelihood that gay people are going to offend children than straight people. That data doesn’t bear that out.”

The Viganò letter also lamented that the Vatican had brought on the Jesuit priest James Martin, who has written a book on how to make gay Catholics feel more welcome in the Church, as a consultor of the Secretariat for Communications.

The church under Francis, Archbishop Viganò writes, has “chosen to corrupt the young people who will soon gather in Dublin for the World Meeting of Families,” by inviting Father Martin to speak there.

In an interview, Father Martin said, “The reason it seems like all gay priests are abusers is that there are no public counterexamples of healthy celibate gay priests, because most gay priests are afraid to come out in this poisonous environment.”

He rejected the notion of gay priests as more likely to commit child abuse as scientifically wrong and “simply a stereotype.” He added, “It’s all about fear.”

Even as the controversy swirled around him, Pope Francis worked to allay that fear Sunday night.

One of the last questions on the papal plane was what a Catholic parent should say to a gay son or daughter.

“Do not condemn,” Francis said. “Dialogue. Understand. Make space for the son or daughter; make space so they express themselves.”

He suggested a conversation the parent might have with a child, offering: “You are my son. You are my daughter, as you are. I am your father, or mother. Let’s talk.”

A version of this article appears in print on

, on Page

A

8

of the New York edition

with the headline:

Francis Takes High Road As Conservatives Pounce, Taking Criticisms Public

. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

Read More | https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/27/world/europe/vatican-power-struggle-bursts-into-open-as-conservatives-pounce.html | https://www.nytimes.com/by/jason-horowitz

Nature Vatican Power Struggle Bursts Into Open as Conservatives Pounce, in 2018-08-28 07:11:33

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Nature Vatican Power Struggle Bursts Into Open as Conservatives Pounce

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Nature

Image

Pope Francis meeting with journalists as he returned to Rome on Sunday from his trip to Ireland.CreditCreditPool photo by Gregorio Borgias

ROME — Since the start of his papacy, Francis has infuriated Catholic traditionalists as he tries to nurture a more welcoming church and shift it away from culture war issues, whether abortion or homosexuality. “Who am I to judge?” the pope famously said, when asked about gay priests.

Just how angry his political and doctrinal enemies are became clear this weekend, when a caustic letter published by the Vatican’s former top diplomat in the United States blamed a “homosexual current” in the Vatican hierarchy for sexual abuse. It called for Francis’ resignation, accusing him of covering up for a disgraced cardinal, Theodore E. McCarrick.

With the letter — released in the middle of the pope’s visit to Ireland — an ideologically motivated opposition has weaponized the church’s sex abuse crisis to threaten not only Francis’ agenda but his entire papacy. At the very least, it has returned the issue of homosexuality in the Roman Catholic Church, which many conservatives are convinced lies behind the abuse crisis, to the center of debate.

Vatican intrigues and power struggles are nothing new, but they usually remain within the medieval walls or fly over the heads of the Catholic faithful around the globe.

This battle, however, is being waged in an exceptionally open and brutal manner. It is fueled by a modern media age, the pope’s reluctance to silence critics, and an issue — child sexual abuse — that perhaps more than any other has prompted defections among the faithful.

The accusations in the letter remain unsubstantiated. Asked Sunday night about their validity, Francis said he would not dignify them with a response.

But they are serious, and the pope’s vague answer has only heightened public interest, particularly in the core accusation — that he was told about Mr. McCarrick’s history of sexual relations with seminarians and did nothing about it.

Image

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, center, the former top Vatican diplomat in the United States, in Portland, Me., in 2014.CreditPool photo by Gabe Souza

“It’s a serious problem,” said Sandro Magister, a veteran Vatican observer at L’Espresso magazine, who said the remarkable public broadside was indicative of enormous frustration among conservatives toward Francis. He doubted whether Francis, who has essentially ignored such salvos in the past, would be able to do so this time.

“With this issue,” Mr. Magister said, “the public impact is much stronger, and on this ground he is rather vulnerable.”

Francis’ non-answer is in keeping with his reluctance to give oxygen to a small — if influential and noisy — group of conservative prelates and writers aligned with the author of the letter, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the former top Vatican diplomat in the United States.

Francis has removed from office or sidelined ideological opponents in the bureaucracy of the church, but he has also been more willing than his predecessors to allow open debate and even dissent. Many have challenged him, in sometimes coarse language, for his openness to making some church practices less rigid, among them the exclusion of divorced and remarried parishioners from receiving Communion.

On Monday, Francis’ supporters shrugged off the letter as another desperate attack from frustrated conservatives still unaccustomed to not getting their way. They expressed confidence that its accusations would be disproved.

Some abuse survivors, who have been pressing Pope Francis to take concrete action about the crisis instead of just offering apologies, however heartfelt, argued that Archbishop Viganò’s letter exploited the abuse for political gain. The letter did not, they said, show particular concern about the plight of the church’s children.

The child sex abuse scandal has riveted the attention of the world’s Catholics, but the shift in the church’s direction under Francis has enlivened his enemies. They believe that the pope’s message of inclusion is undermining longstanding church rules, and that it is leading to confusion and perhaps schism.

Image

Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of South Africa has blamed homosexuality for the Roman Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandals.CreditMarco Longari/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The explosion of conservative Catholic blogs — many in the United States — in an era of lightning-fast modern media, as well as the strategically timed release of the letter combined to make a potent rear-guard action against the 81-year-old pontiff.

“Let us be clear that they are still allegations, but as your shepherd I find them to be credible,” the conservative Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Tex., wrote in an open letter to his diocese. “I will lend my voice in whatever way necessary to call for this investigation and urge that its findings demand accountability of all found to be culpable even at the highest levels of the church.”

If Francis thought that the debate over homosexuality in the church was behind him, the events of this week suggest otherwise.

“The homosexual networks present in the Church must be eradicated,” Archbishop Viganò wrote, arguing that it was the root cause of abuse.

The abuse scandal had already set off a fierce debate in Catholic journals and across churches. Some critics of the church have blamed the vows of celibacy, arguing that suppressing the human libido can lead to pedophilia and rape.

At the Conference of Catholic Families, a rival, conservative event to the Vatican’s World Meeting of Families in Dublin this past weekend, organizers found the pope’s recent condemnation of abuse unsatisfactory because he did not call out homosexuality. That, they say, has turned seminaries into “cesspits.”

Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of South Africa has also blamed homosexuality for the scandal. And Cardinal Raymond Burke, a high-ranking Vatican conservative and a leading critic of the pope, has denounced what he says is “a very grave problem of a homosexual culture in the church.” The problem, he said, is not only among the clergy “but even within the hierarchy, which needs to be purified at the root.”

Image

Cardinal Raymond Burke, a high-ranking Vatican conservative, has spoken of what he says is “a very grave problem of a homosexual culture in the church.”CreditAndrew Medichini/Associated Press

In 2005, the Vatican stated that even celibate gays should not be priests, and instructed church leaders to reject seminary applications from men who “practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called ‘gay culture.’”

Critics of Francis believe that a meeting in Rome of bishops from around the world in October on the theme of youth could become a battleground. They want to make sure the church’s opposition to homosexuality is on the radar should the issue of sex abuse come up, as it now certainly will.

In May, Francis reportedly told Italian bishops that when it came to potentially gay seminary applicants, “if there’s even the slightest doubt, better to not accept them.”

Even so, Archbishop Viganò and his allies have argued that the pope and his supporters are too accepting of gays in the church and that they willfully ignore that the vast majority of victims of sexual abuse by priests are male.

Most experts reject the conflation of homosexuality and pedophilia as a dangerous route to bigotry against gays. Outside the church, the belief has been widely discredited as retrograde.

But it still has traction in the Vatican. Many here believe that an investigation by three cardinals following the 2012 Vatileaks scandal — based on the leaked memos of the same Archbishop Viganò who wrote Sunday’s letter — revealed a gay lobby working in the Holy See and that their report contributed to the retirement of Pope Benedict XVI.

The report remains a closely held Vatican secret, but in his letter, Archbishop Viganò included a slew of names and targeted allies of Francis who share the pope’s views.

Image

Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago, with Pope Francis at the Vatican in 2016.CreditGregorio Borgia/Associated Press

He said Cardinal Blase J. Cupich of Chicago was “blinded by his pro-gay ideology.” And he took issue with the assertion of Cardinal Cupich, a past president of the Committee on Protection of Children and Young People, “that the main problem in the crisis of sexual abuse by clergy is not homosexuality, and that affirming this is only a way of diverting attention from the real problem, which is clericalism.”

In an interview on Sunday, Cardinal Cupich said: “I think it is wrong to scapegoat gays and homosexuals as though there is a greater likelihood that gay people are going to offend children than straight people. That data doesn’t bear that out.”

The Viganò letter also lamented that the Vatican had brought on the Jesuit priest James Martin, who has written a book on how to make gay Catholics feel more welcome in the Church, as a consultor of the Secretariat for Communications.

The church under Francis, Archbishop Viganò writes, has “chosen to corrupt the young people who will soon gather in Dublin for the World Meeting of Families,” by inviting Father Martin to speak there.

In an interview, Father Martin said, “The reason it seems like all gay priests are abusers is that there are no public counterexamples of healthy celibate gay priests, because most gay priests are afraid to come out in this poisonous environment.”

He rejected the notion of gay priests as more likely to commit child abuse as scientifically wrong and “simply a stereotype.” He added, “It’s all about fear.”

Even as the controversy swirled around him, Pope Francis worked to allay that fear Sunday night.

One of the last questions on the papal plane was what a Catholic parent should say to a gay son or daughter.

“Do not condemn,” Francis said. “Dialogue. Understand. Make space for the son or daughter; make space so they express themselves.”

He suggested a conversation the parent might have with a child, offering: “You are my son. You are my daughter, as you are. I am your father, or mother. Let’s talk.”

A version of this article appears in print on

, on Page

A

8

of the New York edition

with the headline:

Francis Takes High Road As Conservatives Pounce, Taking Criticisms Public

. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

Read More | https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/27/world/europe/vatican-power-struggle-bursts-into-open-as-conservatives-pounce.html | https://www.nytimes.com/by/jason-horowitz

Nature Vatican Power Struggle Bursts Into Open as Conservatives Pounce, in 2018-08-28 07:11:33

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Nature Vatican Power Struggle Bursts Into Open as Conservatives Pounce

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Nature

Image

Pope Francis meeting with journalists as he returned to Rome on Sunday from his trip to Ireland.CreditCreditPool photo by Gregorio Borgias

ROME — Since the start of his papacy, Francis has infuriated Catholic traditionalists as he tries to nurture a more welcoming church and shift it away from culture war issues, whether abortion or homosexuality. “Who am I to judge?” the pope famously said, when asked about gay priests.

Just how angry his political and doctrinal enemies are became clear this weekend, when a caustic letter published by the Vatican’s former top diplomat in the United States blamed a “homosexual current” in the Vatican hierarchy for sexual abuse. It called for Francis’ resignation, accusing him of covering up for a disgraced cardinal, Theodore E. McCarrick.

With the letter — released in the middle of the pope’s visit to Ireland — an ideologically motivated opposition has weaponized the church’s sex abuse crisis to threaten not only Francis’ agenda but his entire papacy. At the very least, it has returned the issue of homosexuality in the Roman Catholic Church, which many conservatives are convinced lies behind the abuse crisis, to the center of debate.

Vatican intrigues and power struggles are nothing new, but they usually remain within the medieval walls or fly over the heads of the Catholic faithful around the globe.

This battle, however, is being waged in an exceptionally open and brutal manner. It is fueled by a modern media age, the pope’s reluctance to silence critics, and an issue — child sexual abuse — that perhaps more than any other has prompted defections among the faithful.

The accusations in the letter remain unsubstantiated. Asked Sunday night about their validity, Francis said he would not dignify them with a response.

But they are serious, and the pope’s vague answer has only heightened public interest, particularly in the core accusation — that he was told about Mr. McCarrick’s history of sexual relations with seminarians and did nothing about it.

Image

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, center, the former top Vatican diplomat in the United States, in Portland, Me., in 2014.CreditPool photo by Gabe Souza

“It’s a serious problem,” said Sandro Magister, a veteran Vatican observer at L’Espresso magazine, who said the remarkable public broadside was indicative of enormous frustration among conservatives toward Francis. He doubted whether Francis, who has essentially ignored such salvos in the past, would be able to do so this time.

“With this issue,” Mr. Magister said, “the public impact is much stronger, and on this ground he is rather vulnerable.”

Francis’ non-answer is in keeping with his reluctance to give oxygen to a small — if influential and noisy — group of conservative prelates and writers aligned with the author of the letter, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the former top Vatican diplomat in the United States.

Francis has removed from office or sidelined ideological opponents in the bureaucracy of the church, but he has also been more willing than his predecessors to allow open debate and even dissent. Many have challenged him, in sometimes coarse language, for his openness to making some church practices less rigid, among them the exclusion of divorced and remarried parishioners from receiving Communion.

On Monday, Francis’ supporters shrugged off the letter as another desperate attack from frustrated conservatives still unaccustomed to not getting their way. They expressed confidence that its accusations would be disproved.

Some abuse survivors, who have been pressing Pope Francis to take concrete action about the crisis instead of just offering apologies, however heartfelt, argued that Archbishop Viganò’s letter exploited the abuse for political gain. The letter did not, they said, show particular concern about the plight of the church’s children.

The child sex abuse scandal has riveted the attention of the world’s Catholics, but the shift in the church’s direction under Francis has enlivened his enemies. They believe that the pope’s message of inclusion is undermining longstanding church rules, and that it is leading to confusion and perhaps schism.

Image

Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of South Africa has blamed homosexuality for the Roman Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandals.CreditMarco Longari/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The explosion of conservative Catholic blogs — many in the United States — in an era of lightning-fast modern media, as well as the strategically timed release of the letter combined to make a potent rear-guard action against the 81-year-old pontiff.

“Let us be clear that they are still allegations, but as your shepherd I find them to be credible,” the conservative Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Tex., wrote in an open letter to his diocese. “I will lend my voice in whatever way necessary to call for this investigation and urge that its findings demand accountability of all found to be culpable even at the highest levels of the church.”

If Francis thought that the debate over homosexuality in the church was behind him, the events of this week suggest otherwise.

“The homosexual networks present in the Church must be eradicated,” Archbishop Viganò wrote, arguing that it was the root cause of abuse.

The abuse scandal had already set off a fierce debate in Catholic journals and across churches. Some critics of the church have blamed the vows of celibacy, arguing that suppressing the human libido can lead to pedophilia and rape.

At the Conference of Catholic Families, a rival, conservative event to the Vatican’s World Meeting of Families in Dublin this past weekend, organizers found the pope’s recent condemnation of abuse unsatisfactory because he did not call out homosexuality. That, they say, has turned seminaries into “cesspits.”

Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of South Africa has also blamed homosexuality for the scandal. And Cardinal Raymond Burke, a high-ranking Vatican conservative and a leading critic of the pope, has denounced what he says is “a very grave problem of a homosexual culture in the church.” The problem, he said, is not only among the clergy “but even within the hierarchy, which needs to be purified at the root.”

Image

Cardinal Raymond Burke, a high-ranking Vatican conservative, has spoken of what he says is “a very grave problem of a homosexual culture in the church.”CreditAndrew Medichini/Associated Press

In 2005, the Vatican stated that even celibate gays should not be priests, and instructed church leaders to reject seminary applications from men who “practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called ‘gay culture.’”

Critics of Francis believe that a meeting in Rome of bishops from around the world in October on the theme of youth could become a battleground. They want to make sure the church’s opposition to homosexuality is on the radar should the issue of sex abuse come up, as it now certainly will.

In May, Francis reportedly told Italian bishops that when it came to potentially gay seminary applicants, “if there’s even the slightest doubt, better to not accept them.”

Even so, Archbishop Viganò and his allies have argued that the pope and his supporters are too accepting of gays in the church and that they willfully ignore that the vast majority of victims of sexual abuse by priests are male.

Most experts reject the conflation of homosexuality and pedophilia as a dangerous route to bigotry against gays. Outside the church, the belief has been widely discredited as retrograde.

But it still has traction in the Vatican. Many here believe that an investigation by three cardinals following the 2012 Vatileaks scandal — based on the leaked memos of the same Archbishop Viganò who wrote Sunday’s letter — revealed a gay lobby working in the Holy See and that their report contributed to the retirement of Pope Benedict XVI.

The report remains a closely held Vatican secret, but in his letter, Archbishop Viganò included a slew of names and targeted allies of Francis who share the pope’s views.

Image

Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago, with Pope Francis at the Vatican in 2016.CreditGregorio Borgia/Associated Press

He said Cardinal Blase J. Cupich of Chicago was “blinded by his pro-gay ideology.” And he took issue with the assertion of Cardinal Cupich, a past president of the Committee on Protection of Children and Young People, “that the main problem in the crisis of sexual abuse by clergy is not homosexuality, and that affirming this is only a way of diverting attention from the real problem, which is clericalism.”

In an interview on Sunday, Cardinal Cupich said: “I think it is wrong to scapegoat gays and homosexuals as though there is a greater likelihood that gay people are going to offend children than straight people. That data doesn’t bear that out.”

The Viganò letter also lamented that the Vatican had brought on the Jesuit priest James Martin, who has written a book on how to make gay Catholics feel more welcome in the Church, as a consultor of the Secretariat for Communications.

The church under Francis, Archbishop Viganò writes, has “chosen to corrupt the young people who will soon gather in Dublin for the World Meeting of Families,” by inviting Father Martin to speak there.

In an interview, Father Martin said, “The reason it seems like all gay priests are abusers is that there are no public counterexamples of healthy celibate gay priests, because most gay priests are afraid to come out in this poisonous environment.”

He rejected the notion of gay priests as more likely to commit child abuse as scientifically wrong and “simply a stereotype.” He added, “It’s all about fear.”

Even as the controversy swirled around him, Pope Francis worked to allay that fear Sunday night.

One of the last questions on the papal plane was what a Catholic parent should say to a gay son or daughter.

“Do not condemn,” Francis said. “Dialogue. Understand. Make space for the son or daughter; make space so they express themselves.”

He suggested a conversation the parent might have with a child, offering: “You are my son. You are my daughter, as you are. I am your father, or mother. Let’s talk.”

A version of this article appears in print on

, on Page

A

8

of the New York edition

with the headline:

Francis Takes High Road As Conservatives Pounce, Taking Criticisms Public

. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

Read More | https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/27/world/europe/vatican-power-struggle-bursts-into-open-as-conservatives-pounce.html | https://www.nytimes.com/by/jason-horowitz

Nature Vatican Power Struggle Bursts Into Open as Conservatives Pounce, in 2018-08-28 07:11:33