WaPo | This month, Francis makes his first trip to the United States at a
time when his progressive allies are hailing him as a revolutionary, a
man who only last week broadened the power of priests to forgive women
who commit what Catholic teachings call the “mortal sin” of abortion
during his newly declared “year of mercy” starting in December. On
Sunday, he called for “every” Catholic parish in Europe to offer shelter
to one refugee family from the thousands of asylum seekers risking all
to escape war-torn Syria and other pockets of conflict and poverty.
Yet
as he upends church convention, Francis also is grappling with a
conservative backlash to the liberal momentum building inside the
church. In more than a dozen interviews, including with seven senior
church officials, insiders say the change has left the hierarchy more
polarized over the direction of the church than at any point since the
great papal reformers of the 1960s.
The conservative rebellion is
taking on many guises — in public comments, yes, but also in the rising
popularity of conservative Catholic Web sites promoting Francis
dissenters; books and promotional materials backed by conservative
clerics seeking to counter the liberal trend; and leaks to the news
media, aimed at Vatican reformers.
In his recent comments, Burke
was also merely stating fact. Despite the vast powers of the pope,
church doctrine serves as a kind of constitution. And for liberal
reformers, the bruising theological pushback by conservatives is
complicating efforts to translate the pope’s transformative style into
tangible changes.
“At least we aren’t poisoning each other’s
chalices anymore,” said the Rev. Timothy Radcliffe, a liberal British
priest and Francis ally appointed to an influential Vatican post in May.
Radcliffe said he welcomed open debate, even critical dissent within
the church. But he professed himself as being “afraid” of “some of what
we’re seeing”
