You know, at acatholic Catholica, I mean, once they’ve found Steve Jalsevac’s article, Climate of fear in Vatican is very real. This is one time when they will be overjoyed to read a LifeSiteNews article.
It commences:December 16, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – Our Nov. 16-23 visit to Rome was the most dramatic of many such twice-per-year work trips we have taken there during the past 10 years. After meeting with cardinals, bishops and other Vatican agency and dicastery staff, John-Henry Westen, our new Rome reporter, Jan Bentz, and myself saw a consistent pattern of widespread anxiety and very real fear among faithful Church servants. We have never encountered this before.
Many were afraid of being removed from their positions, fired from their jobs in Vatican agencies or of encountering severe public or private reprimands and personal accusations from those around the pope or even from Francis himself. They are also fearful and anxious about the great damage being done to the Church and being helpless to stop it.
Near the end of our visit, one very high-level cleric confirmed our observations. He added, “One can sense the fear. It is tangible.” Another, who has always been willing to discuss difficult situations, immediately told us that he would not talk, even off the record, in confidence, about any of the current controversies. We were told not to ask him any questions about these things. By the end of that visit we were able to broach one of the controversies and the important information unknown to him was appreciated.
The release of the dubia letter by the now known to be six brave cardinals, quietly supported by at least 20 to 30 other cardinals, has clearly sparked a heightened atmosphere of intimidation and fear in the Vatican.
On Nov. 23 LSN journalist Pete Baklinski reported that Bishop Athanasius Schneider said he had “great astonishment" for what he called the “unusually violent and intolerant” nature of the backlash, adding that such reaction runs contrary to the Pope’s call for “dialogue and acceptance of a legitimate plurality of opinions.”
The Francis papacy has created a radically different climate in Rome from that of Pope St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI, under whom Rome was a vastly more welcoming place for Catholic Culture of Life warriors such as ourselves.
The article concludes:We have to wonder where all of this is going. It is deeply, deeply concerning. The common phrase we kept hearing that week in Rome is that there is a “war” going on in the Church – a war of the "The Spirit of Vatican II" progressives against the orthodox Catholics. One person after another shockingly used that word.
I have never experienced anything like this in my lifetime and I am sure most, if not all regular LifeSite readers, can say the same thing.
Yep, I can say the same thing, and it’s happening not only at the Vatican; I have heard of a similar climate of fear in diocesan administrations right here in Australia.
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