Tony Flannery

The Truth of the Jesus Story is far richer than the children’s story it has become.

Tomorrow evening for the Vigil Mass, and again for the various Monday morning Christmas Masses, our churches will be full. Many of the people who come will not return for the rest of the year. They have left the practice of the faith behind them, for various reasons, but often in this modern, highly educated world, the Church’s version of the Christian message no longer makes sense to them.

The quote below, from Pope Francis speaking to the Curia, is taken from an article by Joshua McElwee, Vatican correspondent of the National Catholic Reporter.  In it Francis is clearly having a go at Cardinal Muller, former head of the CDF.  Muller being the man who sidelined myself, and who later, when he was let go by Francis, complained bitterly that he wasn’t given proper procedures. Which, of course, I found particularly ironic!

The Australian Royal Commission, set up to investigate child sexual abuse in institutions, has made its report. It has focused a great deal on sexual abuse of children in the Catholic Church, and its findings are, to say the least, disturbing, and challenging for the Church. We have had a number of state sponsored investigations in this country, but none of them has gone so deeply into the causes of abuse.