Pope Francis does not have power to change Church alone
■ Most of what I read about the impending visit of Pope Francis to Ireland assumes that he is fully in charge, with the authority and power to change Catholic Church policy without reference to the Vatican’s theological police who really call the tune.
The Church is a human organisation run by humans, some of whom are corrupted by the exercise of power. Vatican shenanigans are riddled with the faults that our species is heir to.
There is no Platonic church that remains unblemished despite human frailty; the real Church is constituted by human ef for t, warts and all. Clearly, Pope Francis has had to work hard to engage with the Vatican equivalent of our civ il ser vice.
He is the first pope in generations to attempt to cut through the internal squabbling in the Vatican that has obstructed the more inspiring role the Church is intended to play in the world. The most challenging issue that besets the Catholic Church concerns the radical injustice evident in the treatment of women.
In matters of justice, the presumption must be in favour of treating all members of the Church in the same way unless there are relevant reasons for doing otherwise.
The reasons persistently provided for the dif ferential treatment of women are increasingly more risible than relevant or reasonable.
Sadly, the Church is shot through with an incurable form of misogyny where men assume they have a divine right to rule. From all of this, Pope Francis emerges as a good man, seeking to cut through the obstacles placed in the way of his ef for t to humanise the Church.
One can only hope that his visit will do something to mend the self-inf licted scars that mar the Church he ser ves, and not degenerate into a form of ephemeral pop-star adulation.
Philip O’Neill
Oxford, UK