Pontiff Seeks Forgiveness for Recent Vatican Scandals — Pope Francis News

During Pope Francis’ recent three city tour in America, people got to see and hear a lot more from the popular Pope.

“I ask you for forgiveness”, Francis said before tens of thousands of people, who broke into applause.

The gathering, or synod, of more than 300 bishops, delegates and observers, including a few married couples, is discussing how the 1.2 billion-member church can confront challenges facing the modern family.

But several of the cardinals L’Espresso cited have either denied signing the letter or said the content is different than what has been reported.

The pope was elected in March 2013 with a mandate to reform the Vatican’s bureaucracy, the Curia, in the wake of the VatiLeaks affair, which exposed alleged cronyism, graft and infighting within the Vatican hierarchy.

“Welcome and care, closeness and attention, trust and hope, are among the basic promises which can be summarized in one word: love”, he said.

There was speculation in Rome that the pontiff may also have alluded to the city’s administration, which the Vatican is relying on to push through urgently needed work ahead of the Church’s jubilee year, which starts in December. His humble demeanor and outspoken views on topics like the economy as well as attitudes towards homosexuals and the divorced have inspired and excited both Catholics and non-believers alike.

Yet raising the specter of any change set off alarm bells for conservatives who have been lobbying fiercely, in public and behind the scenes, to ensure that the synod acts to remove any doubts about the possibility of changing church teachings or policies.

“I was alienated by the Church’s emphasis on money-collection, the swaggering power of priests, the heaving gap between doctrine and the lived lives of people”, the celebrated author writes.

For over a decade, the Catholic Church has been held under greater scrutiny than ever before.

Apparently the letter was delivered to Francis during the afternoon session on October. 5, when Pell reportedly complained to Francis, and in front of the entire synod, about the composition of the 10-member group writing the final report. “Maybe it is time to change the methods of the Synod of Bishops, because it seems to me that the current method is not dynamic”.

Meanwhile, an AP report said that Pell, the Vatican’s finance manager, confirmed he was behind the initiative by conservatives to bring complaints straight to the Pope about a perceived lack of openness in the synod that they felt would create “predetermined results”.

While the synod fathers want to encourage and promote families who are living out their Christian faith, Harries said there is also “a deep awareness of the pastoral needs of those who haven’t managed to achieve perfection or even near perfection”. Such fears, the pope said, are “sociologically weak and spiritually unhelpful”. While the Vatican is providing daily press briefings on the deliberations, the meetings themselves are closed to the press. The real problem is that Francis has reopened many issues concerning discipline and life in the Church that the signatories of the letter considered closed forever.