According to notes from a conversation between Pope Francis and catholic officials
that were leaked earlier this week, the pontiff believes in the
existence of a "gay lobby" and a "stream of corruption" inside the
Vatican.
Reading the transcript of his remarks, what's astonishing
is not so much that he wants a revolution in the Vatican – everyone
outside it wants one now – but his ambition to turn so much more upside
down.
He told his visitors, representatives of the Latin American nuns
and monks, that it's time to "flip the tortilla": "Money is not the
image and likeness of God. Only the person is the image and likeness of
God. It is necessary to flip it over. This is the gospel."
The
transcript that has emerged, while not reproducing all his words, was an
account of them agreed by the delegation immediately afterwards and has
not been denied – in fact the organisation involved apologised that it
had been leaked, which seems to confirm its accuracy.
The headline
news was of course the description of the "gay lobby". This appears to
be further confirmation of the rumours that the secret investigation
into the Vatileaks scandal conducted last autumn by three cardinals,
found involvement of significant gay networks within the Vatican.
The
arrival of this report on Pope Benedict's desk seems to have been the
last straw that precipitated his resignation. One of his most trusted
advisers is fingered in many of these rumours.
All this is known
to everyone concerned with Catholic church politics yet not much spoken
about.
Francis's remarks, as recorded, have something of the same
taken-for-granted quality. He starts by saying that "in the Curire are
also holy people, yes, really, there are holy people."
You have to love
that "really", and the fact that the pope feels it necessary to say that
there are holy people somewhere in the Vatican. Then he says "there
also is a stream of corruption, there is that as well, it is true … The
'gay lobby' is mentioned, and it is true, it is there … We need to see
what we can do."
Although most reports have followed the original
translation and used the term "gay lobby", "network" may be the better
term in English. One of these networks does function as a lobby for
traditionalist rightwing Catholicism. But lobby groups are nothing new
at courts.
What makes this so serious for the Vatican is that any
sexually active Catholic priest is a potential blackmail victim, and
priests who know of one another's activities can be bound into unhealthy
networks by an atmosphere of guilty secrets.
There have always been gay
priests, bishops, and even cardinals, but in the past 30 years they
seem to have formed an increasing proportion of the clergy, as the rule
of celibacy becomes harder to enforce and falls into general contempt.
This
kind of semi-clandestine network festered within the Church of England
for many years, and did a great deal of damage. Only once radical groups
started to out bishops who voted against their own inclinations did it
reach the present agonised stalemate, in which there is open and
reasonably honest disagreement.
In the notes published, Francis
made only passing reference to this lobby. He did make it clear that the
committee of eight cardinals he has appointed are there for the job: "I
am very disorganised, I have never been good at this. But the cardinals
of the commission will move it forward.
There is Rodríguez Maradiaga,
who is Latin American, who is in front of it, there is Errázuriz, they
are very organised. The one from Munich [Cardinal Marx] is also very
organised. They will move it forward."
In a similar vein, he urged
the visitors not to take too much notice of the intrusive Vatican
bureaucracy. "Perhaps even a letter of the Congregation for the Doctrine
(of the Faith) will arrive for you, telling you that you said such or
such thing. But do not worry. Explain whatever you have to explain, but
move forward. Open the doors, do something there where life calls for
it. I would rather have a church that makes mistakes for doing something
than one that gets sick for being closed up."
This is very strong
stuff, considering that his predecessor, Pope Benedict, made his name
as the man in charge of the CDF, the Vatican's department for enforcing
orthodoxy.
The Francis who emerges from these notes is a
straightforward man, who nonetheless believes himself chosen by God. The
first of these qualities is unusual in popes. Above all, he has very
little patience with religion as a matter of observances or feelings. He
mocks traditionalists (who hate him).
"The gospel is not the old rule,
nor [New Age sentimentality]. If you look at the destitute, the drug
addicts, human trafficking ... this is the gospel. The poor are the
gospel."