Inside The Vatican

This week on “Inside the Vatican,” Gerard O’Connell and I take a look at the joint appeal Pope Francis signed with King Mohammed VI of Morocco to keep the city of Jerusalem and its holy sites open to people of all faiths.

Then, we unpack some of our main takeaways from Pope Francis’ new apostolic exhortation on young people, “Christus Vivit.” We’ll also look at some criticism of the document and discuss the importance of looking at the entirety of documents like this one, rather than skipping over the spiritual insights and focusing solely on controversial issues.

Links from the show:

• Pope Francis and Moroccan king sign appeal urging that Jerusalem remain open to all faiths
• Pope Francis urges young people not to abandon the church
• Young Catholics aren’t the church of the future—they’re the church of now.

And you can see Gerry get a birthday cake from the pope here!

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On the last episode of “Inside the Vatican,” Gerry O’Connell and I brought you an interview with Lucetta Scaraffia, the editor of Women Church World, a monthly magazine that comes out with the Vatican’s daily newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano. On Tuesday, March 26, she and the entire staff of Women Church World resigned in protest of what they saw as attempts by the new editor of the Osservatore Romano to undermine their publication. So this week, Gerry and I take a look at why Ms. Scaraffia resigned, and what she accomplished as editor.

Last week, America Magazine also published the exclusive first excerpt from Gerry’s forthcoming book, “The Election of Pope Francis: An Inside Account of the Conclave That Changed History.” The excerpt we published provides the ballot counts from the first round of voting, and you’ll have to pick up the book to learn what happened at the rest of the conclave.

Now, what happens in a conclave is super secret stuff, and Gerry’s book is the first definitive historical record of what happened in the 2013 conclave. So on this week’s episode, Gerry and I talk about his method and what surprised him in his research, and then we examine the way people have reacted to these secrets being published—and what role the Holy Spirit has in all of this.

Links for show notes

• Founder, board of Vatican women’s magazine quit
• Analysis: Are women’s voices being silenced at the Vatican?
• Exclusive: Inside the election of Pope Francis
• The Election of Pope Francis: An Inside Account of the Conclave That Changed History (Buy from Amazon | Buy from Orbis Books)

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Gerry’s out this week, so instead of following our usual format, this week we’re breaking out of the weekly news cycle to bring you an interview about a slow change that’s beginning for some really important people in the Vatican: Women.

Lucetta Scaraffia is the editor of Women Church World. Women Church World is the monthly magazine that comes as an insert in the Vatican’s newspaper. Gerry and I met Lucetta when I was in Rome for the abuse summit. Since Lucetta doesn’t speak English and I don’t speak Italian, we chatted in French, our only common language. You’ll be hearing a dubbed version of our conversation.

As promised, if you want to learn more about voting at the synods and women's involvement, check out the links below, specifically: "Why can't women vote at the Synod on Young People?"

Links:

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This week, we’ll update you on Cardinal Pell and several other high-profile cases of abuse. We’ll also talk about Pope Francis’ sixth anniversary as pope.

Cardinal Pell was sentenced to six years in prison. He’ll be eligible for parole in three years and eight months, and he plans to appeal the ruling altogether in June. We'll look at his legacy as a reformer of Vatican finances as well as his recent conviction.

We'll also look at several new cases that might show us how authorities inside and outside of the Church are holding bishops accountable for the sex abuse scandal.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected Pope on March 13, 2013. In our final story, Gerry and I will look back on the impact Francis has made in his six years as Pope.

Links:

Cardinal Pell is sentenced to 6 years in prison for child sex abuse

Two Baltimore bishops removed from ministry over allegations of sexual harassment

The good, the bad and the merciful: Pope Francis after six years

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This week on “Inside the Vatican,” Gerry O’Connell and I update you on what has been happening since the sexual abuse summit.

First, we take a look at the handbook that the Vatican is putting together on how to handle cases of sexual abuse, and how to put the proper structures in place in each diocese. Gerry and I also examine why Pope Francis is opting for a slower pace of reform—and whether this route can be more effective in the long run in preventing the abuse of minors and vulnerable adults.

Just after the abuse summit, an Australian court’s gag order was lifted, revealing that Cardinal George Pell had been found guilty of sexual abuse. He now waits in prison until his appeal is heard in June. Meanwhile, the Vatican has opened a canonical investigation of Cardinal Pell. I ask Gerry what it means if the Vatican’s trial reaches a different verdict than the civil trial.

Finally, Pope Francis has opened the Vatican’s secret archives on Pope Pius XII. Gerry explains what these archives contain and why it took so long for these documents to be made available to researchers.

Read more:

• The Vatican summit on the protection of minors is over. What’s next?
• Vatican to open canonical investigation into Cardinal Pell, now in Australian prison
• Pope Francis will open the secret archives on Pope Pius XII

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We talk a lot on this show about the church’s sexual abuse crisis, and while Gerry and I try to break down what’s new, we don’t often get to talk about the problems that are at the root of this scandal—or how hearing these stories over and over affects our own faith.

Thankfully, there’s a new podcast from America Media that explores all of these questions. It’s called “Deliver Us.” Its host, Maggi Van Dorn, is a young Catholic reckoning with the abuse crisis. She interviews abuse survivors, experts and regular Catholics about how the church got so broken, and whether it can be fixed.

So this week, instead of our usual Vatican news, we’re bringing you a special look behind the church’s sexual abuse crisis with episode one of Deliver Us. We’ll be back with more Vatican news next week.

For more information and to subscribe to "Deliver Us" visit:

http://deliveruspodcast.org

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This week on “Inside the Vatican” Gerry and I are in Rome covering the sexual abuse summit. So this week’s episode might sound a little different—you’ll hear the sounds of Rome, and some of the interviews that Gerry and I have been doing while we’re here.

We’ll talk about the surprises that came out of Pope Francis’ opening address to the summit, what happened on Thursday and what we can expect from the rest of the summit.

Learn More:

Pope Francis presents 21-point “road map” to guide discussion at abuse summit

Cardinal Tagle at abuse summit: How do we balance justice and forgiveness?

Pope Francis at abuse summit opening: “Listen to the cry of the little ones”

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This week on Inside the Vatican, we’ll fill you in on Cardinal Muller’s recent manifesto, along with updates on the McCarrick case, preparations for next week’s summit on sexual abuse, and information on a bombshell book that threatens to overshadow that summit.

“In the Closet of the Vatican” is a salacious new 571-page book that’s expected to be released on the first day of the Vatican’s summit on sexual abuse and the protection of minors. It’s by a French journalist, Frederic Martel, who claims that he’s interviewed hundreds of sources in and around the Vatican to reveal which Vatican officials are gay and have active sex lives, and are doing scandalous things like hiring male prostitutes.

The release of the book on the first day of the sexual abuse summit threatens to conflate the issue of gay priests with that of the abuse of children. So this week, we’ll look at the ethics of writing a book like this, as well as the intentions behind it.

Read more:

• Deliver Us podcast
• Explainer: Former Cardinal McCarrick faces laicization. What does that mean?
• Cardinal Muller warns against being silent about Catholic faith

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This week, Pope Francis visited Abu Dhabi to meet with religious leaders at the Global Inter-Religious Meeting on Human Fraternity, a conference aimed at combating religious extremism.

Where the pope chooses to visit will always be significant. But what makes this trip different from, say, his trip to Panama that we talked about in the last episode of “Inside the Vatican,” is that this is the first time a pope has visited the Arabian Peninsula. And by all accounts, it seems to have been a success.

Gerry told me this week, “I think it’s difficult to convey the long-term consequences that could emerge from this visit.”

On the show, we’ll get into some of the potential consequences of the pope’s work to facilitate interfaith dialogue between Catholics and Muslims, as well as his call for full citizenship protections for the United Arab Emirates’ eight million Christian migrant workers. We’ll also examine whether the pope’s more critical approach to the U.A.E.’s involvement in Yemen’s brutal civil war signifies a shift in his general diplomatic strategy.

Links:

• Preview: Francis makes first-ever papal visit to Arabian Peninsula
• Before arriving in U.A.E., pope challenges his hosts to help end Yemen crisis
• Why Pope Francis is traveling to ‘the heartland of the Muslim world’
• Pope Francis to world’s religious leaders: We build the future together or there will be no future
• Pope Francis leads largest ever Christian act of worship in the Arabian Peninsula
• Pope Francis on Yemen, Venezuela and the abuse of nuns by clergy

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Whenever Pope Francis goes on a trip somewhere around the world, he usually invites journalists to join him on the papal plane, and he’ll spend a few minutes taking questions from them. Pretty much every subject is on the table, and some of the pope’s most famous quotes have come from these impromptu press conferences—like his “Who am I to judge” comment about gay priests. But since he’s speaking off the cuff, it’s often up to journalists on board the plane, like Gerry, to translate his comments, give them context and sort out what they mean.

So we’re spending our episode this week unpacking a couple of the pope’s comments from his flight back from Panama: one about married priests and the other about the situation in Venezuela.

Links from the show:

Pope Francis on Venezuela, Married Priests, and the Sex Abuse Summit

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