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These cases display a pattern of moral cynicism and clerical cronyism which Bergoglio has shown behind the scenes, while he presented the public image of a reformer. The most blatant examples of it relate to his record as a protector of clerical sex abusers. One case is that of the Buenos Aires priest Rubén Pardo, who was reported for sexually abusing a fifteen-year-old boy. The mother of the boy had great difficulty in getting the archdiocese to admit the case; she complained that Cardinal Bergoglio was protecting the guilty priest, that he gave him lodging in a diocesan residence, and that when she tried to speak to the Cardinal at the archiepiscopal residence he had her ejected by the security staff. The priest was finally convicted by the civil courts and shortly afterwards died of Aids, and a Buenos Aires court obliged the Catholic Church to pay the family compensation for what they had suffered. The mother’s opinion of Bergoglio’s claim to be cracking down on such crimes was: “Bergoglio’s commitment is just talk.”

Ping

A corollary of this is his drive against tradition. Pope Francis realises perfectly well that the only real obstacle to his revolution comes from traditionalists in the Catholic Church, the only element with any backbone prepared to recognise that the emperor has no clothes. Hence the campaign he has waged throughout his pontificate against so-called “rigid” and “backward” Catholics, whom he derides at every opportunity. He repeated this theme just a few weeks ago, when he said what a scandal it was that young priests should be going to ecclesiastical tailors to order soutanes and traditional vestments. We all know what the real scandals in the modern Church are, but the only ones that bother Pope Francis are those of priests following tradition.