Does Pope’s Representative Hope to Silence US Bishops’ Questions? by Phil Lawler

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture, Nov 11, 2019

“The pastoral thrust of this pontificate must reach the American people,” Archbishop Christoph Pierre said today in his address to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Believe me, the impact of this pontificate has reached the American people—but not in the way the apostolic nuncio has in mind.

When the US bishops met in Baltimore one year ago, the American people were clamoring for effective action on the sex-abuse scandal, which had erupted anew last summer with revelations that Pope Francis had known of, and done nothing about, the criminal history of Theodore McCarrick. The USCCB membership was poised to hold bishops accountable for that sort of negligence, and to demand a Vatican investigation into the charges made by a former nuncio, Archbishop Vigano. Then at the eleventh hour the Vatican intervened, asking the American bishops to postpone those items, and promising a thorough explanation of the McCarrick affair.

Now, a year later, American Catholics are still waiting for that explanation, still waiting for bishops to be held consistently accountable—and now also waiting for an investigation into the financial scandals that have re-emerged this summer, bearing new evidence that this pontificate has failed utterly to produce reforms. ….

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