CARDINAL MARX'S ADVICE TO POPE FRANCIS

German Cardinal Reinhard Marx told a conference Friday that the Church's "weak excuses" to dismiss or minimize abuse were no longer acceptable, and that it must accept that it has a problem about the way power and sexuality are expressed.

Marx welcomed public pressure to force reforms, and said the Church must have a "frank discussion" about power, homosexuality, celibacy and training for Priests, among other issues.

Marx's blunt comments follow the release of a devastating Church-commissioned report into decades of sex abuse and cover-up in the German Church.

A month-long meeting of Catholic Bishops from around the world got underway on Wednesday at the Vatican. Pope Francis opened the meeting, which is designed to attract the young back to the Church. 

Even before it began, however, the gathering faced criticism from some Church leaders because Clerical sex abuse is not officially on the agenda -- though it certainly looms large over the gathering. 

Pope Francis told Bishops on Wednesday that youth should have a future free of the mistakes and sins of the past. The Synod brings together nearly 300 Church leaders from almost 125 countries.

The Vatican surveyed Catholic youth and adopted an agenda to discuss topics that sound like a teenagers' Google history: video games, migration, LGBT issues, war, friendship, porn and corruption. 

But the Synod’s Working Document, the agenda which controls the topics to be discussed, nowhere provides for any frank and serious discussion of the tens of thousands of youthful males and adults worldwide, including seminarians and Priests, who have been preyed upon by homosexual male Clergy.

The Synod on Youth is scheduled to last almost an entire month, form October 3 to 28th.

Whereas, the Extraordinary Meeting of the Presidents of Episcopal Conferences from around the world that will be held in February, 2019, to address the sexual abuse scandals have been scheduled for a scant 3 days.

Moreover, when a formal delegation approached Pope Francis to conduct a serious investigation regarding the disgraced McCarrick, he sent them packing.

As of yet, the Pope himself has failed to respond to direct accusations made against him personally regarding his complicity in the McCarrick scandal, a charge leveled against him by Archbishop Vigano and others who have vouched for the Archbishop’s credibility.

With each passing day, it becomes clearer and clearer that this Pontificate has no intention of seriously addressing the fact that homosexual Clergymen preyed upon youthful males (not infants) and were abetted by Bishops who remained silent regarding these crimes and by that silence let other young men be vulnerable to additional assaults.

Cardinal Marx’s advice to Pope Francis is sage and prudent.

May the Holy Father have the humility and the wisdom to listen to this insightful adviser.