Pope Francis begins a decisive season of his pontificate right in “his” Latin America. He is going to Panama to meet young people at WYD, but also to start tackling in the Amazon, issues such as the defense of the indigenous peoples and the environment - in view of the special Synod in October. 2019 presents itself as the year in which many of the “battles” of the 82-year-old Argentine Pontiff, who is implementing a reform of the Church, will come to a conclusion. His hope is that many knots will finally come undone this year.
Geopolitics and scheduled trips
Although he turned 82 years old on 17 December last, the Bishop of Rome is planning numerous trips in 2019. Starting with: Panama, United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Bulgaria, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia just in the first months of the year. It is a very intense program. A sort of synthesis of the "hottest" aspects of today’s universal Church and of humanity. And with all probability, Francis will add other international trips: for example, last year he announced his desire to visit Japan.
Panama
From 23 to 28 January the visit to Panama, for the 34th World Youth Day. This event comes after the Synod of Bishops in October, which proposed to relaunch the leading role of young people in the Church. And it was precisely with young people in mind that on Sunday, the Pontiff launched the Click To Pray app. An instrument "for praying together". The app is available in six languages and has an accompanying website. It has three sections: "Pray with the Pope" with the monthly intentions of the Pope; "Pray every day" to facilitate prayer three times a day, and "Pray online", a space where users can share their prayers and pray for each other which allows to see who prays for what and how many are praying. The Pope specifically called for young people to download the app and pray with him. But beware. Panama’s trip also means that the Argentinean Pope is going back to Latin America, back to the Amazon and its indigenous people, just months away from the Synod on the Amazon – due in October - when the proposal of the viri probati, i.e. the ordination to priest of elderly men married and of proven faith, will be brought forward. This proposal does not mean opening to the marriage of priests, the Sacred Palaces points out, but that it will be possible to celebrate the sacraments in areas where a priest arrives only once a year. The celibacy of priests remains an unchanged condition. Yet the Synod will address above all the thorny ecological issues of wild liberalism, of the "economy that kills", of the defense of indigenous peoples and the environment.
United Arab Emirates and Morocco
From 3 to 5 February Francis will go to the United Arab Emirates, becoming the first Pontiff to visit this country. The motto of the visit is "Make me a channel for your peace". At the center of the event, the importance of inter-religious dialogue and fraternity between believers of different religions. The year 2019 has been declared by the authorities of the Emirates "Year of Tolerance" with the aim of promoting a culture far from any kind of fundamentalism.
On 30 and 31 March Francis will then be in Morocco, following in the footsteps of Pope John Paul II’s historic visit 33 years ago, when on 19 August 1985, Wojtyla met 80,000 young Muslims in the stadium of Casablanca. An unprecedented event in the dialogue between Christianity and Islam. The Polish Pope stated in his famous speech that "dialogue between Christians and Muslims today is more necessary than ever", without neglecting "the important differences" but also "the many things in common". John Paul II had declared: "Christians and Muslims, in general we have badly understood each other, and sometimes, in the past, we have opposed and often exhausted each other in polemics and in wars. I believe that today, God invites us to change our old practices. We must respect each other, and we must stimulate each other in good works on the path of God". The Polish Pope spoke of human rights, which "have their foundation in God". Then there is the call for peace and justice to overcome the temptations of those who want to "change everything with violence or extreme solutions", because the price of violence always weighs on the innocent.
The logo of Francis' visit depicts a cross and a crescent moon, underlining the interreligious character between Christians and Muslims. It represents that dialogue desired by Pope Wojtyla and that now Pope Francis intends to pursue with force. To remove the grounds for the exploitation of religion for hatred and violence and thus defeating terrorism and wars.
Bulgaria and Macedonia
From 5 to 7 May the Pontiff will be in Bulgaria and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Catholics in these two countries are a minority among the Orthodox. The journey focuses on dialogue with the Orthodox world at a difficult time for these Eastern Churches, after the birth of the new Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, recognized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople but not by the Russian Orthodox.
Romania
From 31 May to 2 June the Pope will face another ecumenical journey. He will go to Romania to promote the unity of all Christians under the mantle of Our Lady.
Those attacking the Pope
Pope Francis’ opponents are exploiting the current clerical abuse crisis as a platform to expel Francis from the papacy and to elect a new Pope who better fits their agendas. The German Cardinal Walter Kasper, president emeritus of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity and theologian much appreciated by Bergoglio, has said so in recent days: "There are people - Kasper said in an interview with Report Muenchen, and relaunched by Crux - who simply don't like this pontificate. They want it to end as soon as possible and then have, so to speak, a new conclave". They also want it to "go in their favor, so it will have a result that fits their ideas”. Kasper has argued that there are some groups in the Church who are taking advantage of the crisis of sexual abuse in the clergy as a platform for the expulsion of Francis from the papacy. In his comments, Kasper said that papal opponents are using an "inappropriate" strategy to turn the discussion on the issue of abuse "into a discussion on Pope Francis" which, he said, amounts to "an abuse of abuse".
We should not forget the organization with which the request for the Pope's resignation was launched on international media, in a letter dated August 26, 2018, published on the last day of Bergoglio's trip to Dublin, by the former nuncio to the United States Carlo Maria Viganò, who accused Francis of ignoring the accusations of misconduct made against the former cardinal Theodore McCarrick.
The McCarrick case, a former archbishop of Newark and then Washington, exploded in June when an internal Church investigation had found the allegations of harassment of a former altar boy in the seventies to be credible. Despite the denials of the high prelate, the scandal had created yet another crisis within the American Church and the Vatican hierarchies themselves since it was apparently no secret that "Uncle Ted", as he was called, would have sex with adult seminarians.
So after the publication of the accusations concerning McCarrick's conduct, on 28 July last, Pope Francis defrocked the cardinal and ordered "his suspension from the exercise of any public ministry, along with the obligation to remain in a house" for "a life of prayer and penance" awaiting the outcome of the canonical process.
Council of Cardinals and reform of the Curia
The Council of Cardinals will take place in the Vatican from 18 to 20 February the 28th. The new Apostolic Constitution is expected to reform and streamline the Roman Curia. Among other things, the Council of Cardinals is no longer C9: in fact there are now six Cardinals who make up the Council of Cardinals created in 2013 at the behest of Pope Bergoglio, who needed a body to assist him in the work of reforming the Roman Curia and in the governance of the Church. The Australian Cardinal George Pell (77 years old), the Chilean Francisco Xavier Errazuriz (85) and the Congolese Laurent Monswengo Pasinya (78) are all above the canonical retirement age of 75 and have complicated situations behind them.
Economy
The prefect of the Secretariat of the Economy, who currently is George Pell himself, who is about to finish his five-year term and is 77 years old, should be changed, regardless of how the process goes. Pell has in fact been facing a trial since 2017 in which he is accused of sexual abuse in a court in Melbourne, Australia.
Communication
Between 2018 and 2019, great upheavals characterised the Vatican's communications. In December, Andrea Tornielli was appointed director of the Vatican media and Andrea Monda director of the Osservatore Romano. Then, after the resignation of Greg Burke as director of the Press Office of the Holy See, and of his deputy Paloma García Ovejero, Alessandro Gisotti was chosen in January as ad interim director of the Press Office. Now, the communication machine is working well, as many insiders confirm: there is evidence of an adjustment of the organization and a great deal of understanding between Tornielli, Gisotti and the Prefect of the Department of Communications, Paolo Ruffini. It seems that among the next steps that the new management is preparing there is a return to a role of greater visibility of Vatican Radio.
