Vatican conservatives eye ‘putsch’ vs Pope

VATICAN CITY: Conservative elements in the Catholic hierarchy may be using claims that the Pope ignored sexual abuse allegations against a senior clergyman to mount a “putsch” to remove the liberal pontiff.

“Make no mistake. This is a coordinated attack on Pope Francis,” said an editorial article on the website of the progressive weekly.

“A putsch is afoot and if the US bishops do not, as a body, stand up to defend the Holy Father in the next 24 hours, we shall be slipping towards schism,” the author Michael Sean Winters wrote. “The enemies of Francis have declared war.”

Nicolas Seneze, the Rome correspondent for the French daily La Croix, echoed that there is “a clear desire to attack Francis,” telling AFP that “those who regard Francis as dangerous will stop at nothing.”

Among ultra- conservative Catholics, the Pope is regarded as a dangerous progressive more interested in social issues than traditional Church matters.

With his more conciliatory approach to the gay community Francis had raised hopes that he might steer the Church towards greater acceptance of homosexuality but he remains in line with traditional Church teaching on sexuality and marriage.

Earlier this month, a devastating report accused more than 300 priests in the US state of Pennsylvania of abusing more than 1,000 children since the 1950s.

The United States is home to the fourth-largest Catholic population in the world, after Brazil, Mexico and the Philippines.

During his visit to Ireland on Sunday the Pope “begged for God’s forgiveness” for past clerical abuse scandals, which have badly damaged the image of the Church in the Catholic stronghold.

His trip was met with enthusiastic crowds but also protests, with about 5,000 abuse victims and supporters attending a “Stand for Truth” rally in the capital Dublin.

The Catholic Church’s standing has been badly dented by the abuse scandals. Stronghold Ireland has largely shed its traditional Catholic mores, voting earlier this year to legalise abortion after approving same- sex marriage in 2015.

Multiple probes in Ireland have found Church leaders protected hundreds of predatory priests and former Irish president Mary McAleese revealed this month that the Vatican had sought to keep Church documents inaccessible to government investigators.

The abuse scandals in Ireland are part of a worldwide crisis for the Vatican.

Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, a former Vatican envoy to the United States, on Saturday said he had told Francis of the allegations against prominent US cardinal Theodore McCarrick in 2013.

But rather than punish McCarrick, who was forced to resign last month, Vigano said Pope Francis had lifted sanctions imposed on him by his predecessor Pope Benedict 16th.