Five years ago when Pope Francis was chosen to be the new leader of the Catholic church, his election was met with a sense of hope that he would lead the Church into a new and more progressive era. But his failure to adequately address the sex abuse scandal within the Church, his outspokenness on weird topics like Climate Change, his silence on Ireland’s new abortion laws as well as the Vatican recent celebration of the heinous Castro regime has tamped down the optimism of followers.
Since taking the church leadership, Pope Francis was tasked with putting the decades of sexual abuse acts to rest. Many expected the incoming pontiff would provide a sense of transparency to Catholic practitioners and level long overdue punishments against sexual predators in the priesthood. Catholics mulled the prospect of a genuine investigation, excommunications and even the possibility that those who skirted prosecution would be turned over to law enforcement.
Following a Pennsylvania grand jury report that claimed the church protected 301 “predator priests” across six dioceses, Pope Francis had only words to offer.
“I acknowledge once more the suffering endured by many minors due to sexual abuse, the abuse of power and the abuse of conscience perpetrated by a significant number of clerics and consecrated persons,” Pope Francis reportedly said.
Although Pope Francis has blasted the atrocities, little regarding justice has occurred on his watch. The ongoing scandals, coverups and lack of church accountability have left followers in a crisis of faith. Under the sitting Pope’s administration, other promises of progress have also gone unfulfilled.
Now almost five years into his post, the pontiff has failed to deliver on the many progressive promises he made early on. He won international popularity through a modest disposition and promised to show increased compassion for divorced and remarried couples, gay community members and improve the roles of women in the church. These were on top of his call to investigate and reform the sexual sins of the priesthood. Pope Francis initially included women on the abuse commission, but little change has been made concerning women’s role in the church.
Former Irish president Mary McAleese recently denounced the Catholic Church calling it an “empire of misogyny” toward women. Some media outlets are still giving the Pope a pass by claiming the Vatican bureaucracy is an almost immovable object to change. However, the recent celebration of the brutal Castro regime has once again gone too far.
The Vatican’s online news feed not only sent out a headline congratulating Cuba on the 60th anniversary of Castro’s communist regime despite its murderous and anti-Christian legacy, but it linked to a full article celebrating the anniversary. This is an excerpt that reportedly was posted by the Vatican News.
“The Cuban Revolution celebrated its 60th anniversary this January 1, 2019. On the island, the historic anniversary was celebrated with a ceremony in Santiago de Cuba, in the cemetery of Santa Ifigenia, where Fidel Castro is buried, who died on November 25, 2016,” the Gateway Pundit reported.
“To the main national forces on January 10, 1959, the dictator Fulgencio Batista fled 26 months of guerrilla war led by brothers Fidel and Raul Castro. From Santiago, Fidel Castro proclaimed the beginning of the revolution the victory of the counterculture.”
It is common knowledge that the Castro-run Cuban government immediately declared the country was officially atheist and seized property held by the Catholic Church and other religious organizations. The communist hardliners immediately went to work targeting churchgoers as “Catholic scum.” More than 90 percent of all Cubans were Catholics at the time of the Castro overthrow. Members of the clergy and vocal Catholics were expelled and imprisoned on religious grounds. Others who spoke against Castro and his atheism were murdered.
According to reports, nearly 11,000 people were slaughtered under Castro’s dictatorship that also brought the world to the brink of a nuclear holocaust when he tried to import Soviet warheads during U.S. Pres. John F. Kennedy’s tenure. Approximately 500,000 Cubans have fled the island for the U.S. because of the atrocities and persecution organized by Castro and the communists.
Another scrutiny of the Castro regime reveals that nearly 78,000 innocents may have lost their lives at sea trying to escape the clutches of Cuban communism where religious freedom and speech are strangled in all forms.
As disheartening as the facts are, the current Pope has done little to create a progressive church that protects the innocent and holds the powerful accountable. It’s heartbreaking for the world’s Christians to see a murderous, atheist regime such as Castro’s honored by an office that is supposed to be God’s mouthpiece.