Pope Francis has appointed an Irish victim to the Vatican’s panel on sexual abuse. While the Pope has called the sexual abuse of children “the shame of the Church”, what he could just as usefully do is to allow priests to marry. There is no biblical justification for celibacy; on the contrary, celibacy was adopted by the church in early medieval times to avoid having to care for the widows and children of dead priests.
As an Epicurean, it is not for me to tell the Catholic church what it should stand for, but nonetheless I will be cheeky and do so: among other things it should be standing for social justice, protecting the fragile planet by encouraging fewer children, and for the happiness of its workers, known as priests.
Pope Francis is reportedly furious that his desire to create a “poor church for the poor” has been undermined by the example of one of his closest neighbours, the Vatican’s former secretary of state Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. According to La Repubblica, Bertone, 79, who briefly took charge of the Vatican after Benedict XVI resigned, is due to move into a lavish 6,500ft² apartment within the Vatican once extensive building works are complete. The massive flat is in the San Carlo Palace – right next door to the St Martha’s Residence, the humble Vatican hostel where Pope Francis chose to live after spurning the traditional luxury of the Apostolic Palace. The Pope has publicly urged the clergy to adopt a more humble lifestyle; last month he accepted the resignation of a German prelate dubbed the “Bishop of Bling” for spending €31m to renovate his plush residence