“Do you question my mental balance? What gives you the right? How’s yours? What are your motives?
Pope Francis’s new autobiography, Hope, has been released.
It’s always a case with him of the more you know, the less you know.
My husband Phil Lawler reports that it reveals little about one of the most pressing and decisive questions, the scandal of sexual abuse, and how it relates to Pope Benedict’s resignation:
While he expresses his sorrow about the scandals that have enveloped the Vatican, Pope Francis does not give any new information on that front, either. Shortly after his election, Pope Francis met with his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, who presented him with a large box of documents. In Hope, Pope Francis confirms what many Vatican-watchers had strongly suspected: that the box contained “documents relating to the most difficult and painful situations: cases of abuse, corruption, dark dealings, wrongdoings.” But Pope Francis says nothing further about the information in those files, or what—if anything—he had done to address the scandals.
Besides the scandal, another issue of grave importance — even more so, as it has to do with a vital means of extricating ourselves from the mess — has to do with the liturgy, and tradition in general.
In the autobiography we’re treated to the same old rants we have become accustomed to over these long weary years: Rigidity, Doctors of the Law, Lace.
The bitter irony of the title of the book — Hope — immediately strikes the lover of tradition, who senses the danger of losing that virtue. Despite having the best evidence, sound logic, and plain common sense, we see very well by now that we have no (earthly) hope of making headway against Pope Francis’s autocratic command, synodality notwithstanding.
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