Responding to a mini-fracas set off by his recent declaration that he considers it “an honor when Americans are attacking me,” Pope Francis told reporters during an inflight news conference Tuesday that the U.S. is not his only source of heartburn.
“Criticism comes not only from the Americans, they’re coming from all over,” Francis said.
The comment got me thinking: If we take the U.S. off the table, what are the other countries where criticism of this pope seems most robust?
Herewith, a rundown of the Top Five countries other than the U.S. where this pope seems to bring things to a boil.
5. Nigeria
Africa tends to be a mixed bag for Francis. The African Church is dynamic, extremely loyal to the papacy, and it resonates with the anti-corruption and social justice message of a “third world” pope. Yet it also tends to be conservative on matters of faith and morals, leery of some of the winds blowing today.
Nigeria, the most populous nation in Africa, is a good example.
A year after Francis issued his cautious opening to Communion for Catholics who divorce and remarry outside the Church in Amoris Laetitia, Cardinal John Onaiyekan of Abuja declared that “in a world going down the drain through widespread moral laxity, the Church of God cannot abdicate her responsibility to uphold the high standards of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
4. Poland
In Poland, any pope starts with a deficit simply for not being John Paul II, and some Poles see Francis rolling back aspects of John Paul’s legacy.
When the Polish bishops finally released guidelines for implementation of Amoris Laetitia in June 2018, they side-stepped the Communion issue but stressed that Amoris has to be read in continuity with previous papal teaching.
Beyond intra-Church issues, many Poles are also leery of Francis’s environmental agenda, especially his advocacy of reducing use of fossil fuels as outlined in his 2015 encyclical Laudato si’. Poland is the second-largest coal producer in Europe, and coal provides 88 percent of the power grid.
3. Italy
There’s a strongly conservative-to-traditional wing in Italian Catholicism which, from the beginning, has been skeptical of this maverick pope.
In 2016, the late Cardinal Carlo Caffarra of Bologna, another perceived leader of the conservative wing of Italian Catholicism, was among the four cardinals who submitted dubia, or critical questions, to Francis in response to Amoris Laetitia.
Let’s also not forget that although some see accusations against Francis of a cover-up of sex abuse charges regarding ex-cardinal and ex-priest Theodore McCarrick as an American operation, it was an Italian cleric who leveled them, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, whose own writings on the subject are about as Italian as such things come.
2. Argentina
Recently Crux’s Inés San Martín spent time back home in her native Argentina, among other things looking for evidence of a “Francis effect”. What she found, she reported, was a mix of enthusiasm and deep affection in some quarters with “vitriol, disappointment, hatred, frustration and finger-pointing” in others.
Aside from the grumbling about Francis one could find anywhere – he’s either too liberal or not liberal enough, for instance – San Martín found a couple of reactions that are uniquely Argentinian.
First, Argentines are angry Francis hasn’t yet come home after six years in office. By way of contrast, John Paul II visited Poland within seven months of his election in 1978, and Benedict XVI was in Germany within four months of taking over in 2005.
Second, Argentines (and especially the Argentinian media) tend to assume that absolutely everything the pope says and does is directed at them, which means they assume he’s forever taking sides in their political and cultural debates. All the divisions that run through society therefore are applied to the pope.
1. Vatican City
It’s well known that many in the Vatican’s “old guard” opposed early attempts at financial reform under Francis, and they’ve proven resilient in fighting them off.
Off the record, you’ll find some Vatican officials on fire with enthusiasm for the direction Francis is leading and driven to get as much of his agenda accomplished as possible. Others will complain of an internal climate of intimidation and fear, low morale, and chronic confusion.
Full story at Crux.com.
And it’s all well-deserved. Answer the dubia.
It was obvious the Church had stagnated after the long papacy of St Pope John Paul II and the weak leadership of Pope Benedict XVI. The cardinal-electors accurately perceived that change was needed in the Church and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit selected cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio as the 266th Pope. The sexual abuse scandals, the coverups, the financial corruption and the “court gamesmanship” in the hierarchy were all evidence of the “filth” that Pope Benedict correctly identified but lacked the skills or energy to address. I pray for Pope Francis daily. He has the unpopular job of cleaning up this filth. It is not surprising he is unpopular with some of the hierarchy who have benefited handsomely under the previous two popes.
I’m not too sure it was under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit doesn’t cause confusion and the circle of Gay mafia prelates surrounding and embracing Pope Francis gives me pause. His elevation of those men who confuse compassion with condoning same gender confusion is quite troubling. And the filth is only increasing. But I do pray for him too.
By the time the Holy Spirit inspired the Cardinal electors of the last conclave, men like McCarrick were already too old to vote, so please stop pretending the entire clergy sex abuse scandal came at the hands of Pope Francis, and, by the way, it was Francis who removed his hat and laicized him.
Here we go again! There is some dispute about whether it was the Holy Spirit or perhaps…..Anyway, this Pope is stacking the College of Cardinals with liberal Prelate and those sympathetic to the homosexual agenda so therefore it really doesn’t matter whether he was “forced” to remove McCarrick. His elevation of pro-homosexual men like Cupich, Farrell, Tobin, etc. is troubling not to mention all the foreign and recent liberals he has named.
William Robert, I agree with you. I might go a little bit further. The health of the Sainted Pope severely impacted his leadership for many years before he finally passed into heaven. It has often seemed to me that in those years, Ratzinger’s influenced and power grew, and so with it, responsibility for the abuse that continued to be covered up during those years. I think he genuinely believed he could get ahead of it and handle it, but by the time – almost 20 years later – I suspect he was simply overwhelmed by it all and his failures to comprehend or address adequately the corruption that allowed the abuse to flourish. Hence his resignation. Just my thoughts.
There is serious questions surrounding Benedict’s resignation and whether he was forced out by the homosexual mafia in the Vatican. The only failure that I am witnessing is the failure of Pope Francis to address the confusion and dissent in my Church and to actually elevate men who are precisely the cause of this confusion and dissent.
What a strange reply, William Robert (5:07). Pope Francis is being criticized precisely because he has not drained the swamp but added to it.
I pray that God frustrate any designs of man that are not from the heart of Christ, and convert all human hearts to do God’s will, beginning with my own heart.
I agree with Craig. ANSWER THE DUBIA!
Why does the Pope dislike the US?
It is a characteristic Argentinian quality – disliking Americans. Why is that?
You, as Americans, should know that Argentina has defaulted on it’s debts for nine times. So, they gladly take in American loan dollars, but default on paying them back. That’s the Argentinian for you. Americans should have to repay their own loans, but we here in Argentina, we don’t owe anything to Americans….loan Dollars, yes! We love them, and we don’t have any need to repay them, because America is a vulture, it is evil!
(But give us more American dollars, now!! And we don’t have to worry about repayment)
Perhaps you have lost track of how much money China has loaned to us in the form of treasury debt obligations.
The number is $1.3 TRILLION
There is a considerable difference – The US has never defaulted on its debts. Compare that against Argentina, which has defaulted, as stated, nine times. Also, the US debt obligation to China has recently dropped to 1/2 trillion. No one says this easy, with so many complicated financial variables, which can change overnight – but this is certainly a good reason why Trump got elected, so as to improve our financial standing with China, our national debt, and the world markets.
Well, I decided to join the 40-day crusade of prayer and fasting for the Church, conducted by Cardinal Burke and Bishop Schneider! It started yesterday, Sept. 17th!
Well, in my senior years, I am trying to keep it too. Either fasting or giving up something or things I really, really want. And saying at least a decade of the Rosary every day when I really prefer to say the Psalms (Liturgy of the hours.) Trying to do both. I did not sign anything, but perhaps I should. Not sure.