"Focus" on Growing Resistance Against Pope Francis -- "This Pope Makes Our Church Kaputt"

(Rome) Focus correspondent Eva Kallinger and Focus editor Gregory Dolak writes in the new edition of the weekly magazine on the "revolt against the Pope"  . While Pope Francis was preparing "fundamental change" in  the Church, there is " growing resistance to his brash nature." And not just in the Vatican, but also among bishops and Catholic groups around the world. There is also a "creeping nostalgia" detectable for Benedict XVI..

The two journalists report of "enthusiastic Masses" in St. Peter's Square and a "measurable" increase in church attendance and confessions. A statement that has been variously asserted last spring, immediately after the election, siince it could hardly be measurable empirically. Since then it has hardly been heard.  The participants at the Wednesday catachesis have measurably increased.  Whether "Francesco" is the new fashion in names for newborn boys, the statistics of the coming years will show.

Atmosphere in the Vatican "Lousy" because "Brash Style" of the new Pope

In any event, according to Focus in the Vatican "the euphoria about the new pope, however, is long gone." The mood is described as "lousy". Publicly they say there is trust, but no one does. The reason is obvious, because everyone was confused, "because nobody knows what will happen tomorrow with him and the Church."

The recent low point was the criticism of the Pope in the Vatican to its employees through the media. Vatican employees felt alienated by the infamous interview  with Eugenio Scalfari for the daily newspaper La Repubblica. The Pope blustered before the enthusiastically listening atheist Scalfari: "The leaders of the Church were often narcissistically, surrounded by sycophants and egged on by their courtiers to slander. The Court is the leprosy of the papacy. . . "

"The Curia - a troop of lepers" asks Focus . Several thousand men and women, priests and religious, the years, often decades, performing their silent and faithful service to the Church and the Pope. Pope Francis hardly meant those  members of the Curia, who had made life difficult for  Benedict XVI. with their intrigues and their boycott.. They belong to the so celebrated  new pontificate and have been  favored by the emergence of rank and standing.

The image of the gentle Pope, who acts collegially, is not confirmed in Rome. "Not only in the Vatican is there resistance to this.  Around the globe, as critics report in Rome, the discomfort grows," says Focus .

U.S. bishops see "Acute Risk of Loss Without Profits"

In the U.S., there was anger by the Pope's interviews, especially with his "liberal sayings" about gays, abortion and contraception. The bishops, including "publicly" one of the Bergoglio electors, Cardinal Timothy Dolan," fear they will lose believers to the Evangelicals. Focus did not write this, but among U.S. bishops there is talk of the "acute risk of loss without profits ".

The weekly magazine cites opposition to Pope Francis in Latin America. There, priests and lay people have often fought "for years against communist and Church-critical populists."  You feel overwhelmed by  Pope Francis'  perceived "left-swing".

Poland: "If This Continues, This Pope Will Make Our Church Kaputt"

Focus summarizes the mood of the Polish clergy and episcopate with the words: "If this continues, this Pope will make our Church kaputt," says a Vatican-insider, about local concerns. "

The official motto of the Church in Germany is "Celebrate". Focus journalists have so far perceived as much. You do, however, find even north of the Alps, rumblings, because the reforms are  too slow to go for the "German bishops" who have "spearhead the demand for reforms."  Since last 13 March, satisfaction prevails here, that the  "brakeman" John Paul II and Benedict XVI. have finally been gotten rid of. But we are wanting to see some action. The expectations are so screwed up, the "minimal solutions" expected are to celibacy, women priests and remarried divorcees. And then what?

Hans Küng and the Rif Eskimos and Notker Wolf About Papal "bomblets"

Focus also questioned the apparently inevitable Hans Küng, who can dish out his broadsides against everything that has even the appearance of a Catholic Church. His words say much about as much about Catholicism, as a lone Berber in the Rif mountains could tell about the customs and traditions of Eskimos. They should therefore be mentioned.

Abbot Primate Notker Wolf thrilled at the Pope and his own, hardly decipherable ciphers: "The Pope exactly delivers  bomblets that are needed in our time, which are bomblets that come from the Gospel, and there are many."

"Creeping Nostalgia" for Benedict XVI. - Lack of Theological Depth

Focus also reports of a "creeping nostalgia" for Benedict XVI. Citing  a Curia employee: "The German Pope inspired us with his arguments". Thus, it is now over.

Focus also reported a lack of theological discussions, i.e. theological depth of this pontificate. One criticism voiced  especially at Catholic universities around the world, but "only unofficially of course."

"New Modesty?" Francis has "Whole Floor" in Santa Marta, "Big as Old Pope's Apartment"

The Focus editors leave the Vatican "bubble". "What do you mean new modesty," a Curia employee is quoted. The Pope, who refused the papal apartment, "Evidence is now he has a whole floor in the Vatican guesthouse Santa Marta".  Considering the large chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the Pope's new apartment  "is not much smaller than the old place."  Even the house rules meet with criticism and incomprehension. Pope Francis said he wanted "not to lock" out  and place himself among the people to talk to everyone. The reality, says Focus , looks different: "For in Santa Marta, one must not approach the Pope and not even greet him."

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: La cigüeña de la torre

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

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