How Pope Leo XIV will end the Catholic Churchs age of arbitrariness
During his 12-year pontificate, Pope Francis urged Catholics to shake up their church and “make a mess” if they had to.It seems he took his own advice a bit too literally, because he left a mess for his successor, Pope Leo XIV, whose inaugural Mass will take place this Sunday.
In today’s Catholic Church, confusion reigns on core teachings, conservative and liberal factions are at war, the Vatican is on the verge of a liquidity crisis, and corruption infests the bureaucracy.The good news? Leo might actually be the man to clean it all up.A pope’s No.
1 job is to secure doctrinal and ecclesial unity.But Francis prioritized outreach to the unbelieving and half-believing, and he regarded Catholics who adhere firmly to Catholic dogma as mere impediments.
His strategy of condemning churchgoing Catholics and their hardworking priests — always a pope’s most faithful followers — as Pharisees was not exactly a master class in leadership.Then he issued documents that appeared to contradict settled Catholic teaching on gay relationships and remarriage after divorce, and the Church was thrown into chaos.
Liberals crowed, conservatives howled, and everyone argued over what on earth his ambiguous statements were supposed to mean.The papacy has a practical side, too, and Francis’s record here was no better.After some promising early moves, he abandoned his effort to reform the Vatican’s murky finances.
An audit by Pricewaterhouse Coopers was ordered, then canceled.At the Vatican, business as usual means endless accounting games, asset mismanagement, and a deepening sea of red.
Donations fell off, and it’s easy to see why.There was an undeniable air of incompetence and corruption.And there was the fact that conservative American Catholics, an important part of the church’s donor base, were the pope’s favorite punching bags.
No wonder they closed their wallets.The result? The Vatican has a structural budget deficit of $112 million and a $2.2 billion unf...