What happened?
Dozens of posters sprang up around Rome on Saturday in an anonymous protest against Pope Francis. The posters featured an apparently glowering Francis and made reference to his interventions in the Knights of Malta saga and his silence in response to the dubia. They read: “Ah Francis, you’ve taken over congregations, removed priests, decapitated the Order of Malta and the Franciscans of the Immaculate, ignored Cardinals … but where’s your mercy?” The police are investigating.
What the Vaticanisti said
The Italian journalist Marco Tosatti said the appearance of the posters was “big news”. Romans often raise their voices against public figures, he said, but the attack on a pope was “unprecedented”.
Breitbart’s Rome bureau chief, Thomas D Williams, noted that the posters had a counterintuitive message. “Having placed great stress on mercy since the beginning of his pontificate, Francis has found himself particularly susceptible to the criticism of a certain double-standard, since he has reserved his most strident invectives for conservatives, labelling them rigid, doctrinaire and legalistic.”
The Pope had also twice demoted Cardinal Raymond Burke, and sacked a Vatican cleric “who allegedly criticised the Pope in private”, Williams said.
John Allen of Crux said: “I don’t think we should be shocked. We already knew that Pope Francis is a polarising figure.”
Allen observed that “in an increasingly acrimonious climate, it was probably only a matter of time before something like this happened”. Allen said he could not remember any examples of posters “on the streets of Rome criticising a sitting pope”, but that controversy around any pope was common.
Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Congregation of Bishops, called the posters “the work of the Devil”, saying such measures were divisive and the wrong way to practise dialogue in the Church.
The blogger “Enza”, on Tosatti’s website, wondered if the posters might be a hoax, giving the Pope “the opportunity to attack the “traditionalists”.
The most overlooked story of the week
✣ Congo peace deal brokered by bishops is in peril
What happened?
The Democratic Republic of Congo’s fragile peace looks ever more insecure after the death of opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi. The bishops of the country (half of whose population of 70 million are Catholic) had brokered peace talks. Tshisekedi was supposed to lead the transition after President Joseph Kabila steps down this year.
Why was it under-reported?
The story was covered in a few mainstream news sources, but with little fanfare. Perhaps that is because the Democratic Republic of Congo has for so long been at a crossroads, without coming to a decisive moment of political change, and Mr Tshisekedi’s death only prolongs the tension.
Tshisekedi would have been well placed to lead that transition, having played a major role in Congolese politics since the 1960s. He was a popular figure and had been a focus of opposition to President Kabila, who has ruled since 2001.
What will happen next?
The deal had not been finalised, so there is much work for the bishops to do in forming a transitional government and agreeing on a date for the next elections.
The stakes are high: last year, dozens were killed in clashes over the country’s future. The UN envoy has said the country could even be at risk of civil war. Without Tshisekedi’s charismatic and authoritative presence, an agreement between government and opposition will take all the bishops’ diplomatic skills.
✣The week ahead
The Pope’s Council of Cardinals will meet on Monday to discuss the governance of the Church. The nine cardinals, including George Pell and Pietro Parolin, advise the Pope on possible reforms. At the last meeting in December, the major theme was Vatican diplomacy. The Council’s long-term goal is a possible revision of Pastor Bonus, the Curia’s constitution.
Tomorrow is the World Day of the Sick, a commemoration introduced by St John Paul II in 1993 to accompany Our Lady of Lourdes’s feast day. Most bishops in England and Wales will celebrate Mass for the sick at their local cathedrals.
As parliament and the media continue to chew over the consequences of Brexit, the Vatican will host a meeting of the Council of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe (CCEE).
Cardinal Vincent Nichols is vice-president of the body, which has recently spoken out against Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
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