"Pope Sodano I" Update

Sodano Bestows Papal Knighthood on Pro-Abort Politician

by Christopher A. Ferrara

        With Pope John Paul II increasingly disabled by Parkinson’s disease, the actual governance of the Church on a daily basis has largely fallen into the hands of Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Vatican Secretary of State. This column has followed Sodano’s disastrous policies and high-handed tactics for years — everything from rewriting the Message of Fatima, to suppressing the Pope’s praise for the traditional Latin Mass, to relentlessly hounding Fr. Nicholas Gruner, to supporting creation of the International Criminal Court that will soon be persecuting Catholics in every nation. In short, the man is a walking disaster for the Church.

        But on and on Sodano goes, with the Pope refusing to accept his resignation at the mandatory retirement age of 75. Instead, the Pope is said to have affirmed his total confidence in Sodano — although who really knows that the Pope is saying these days, as he can barely open his mouth to read the addresses written for him by others.

        Sodano’s latest move, as reported by John Allen, the Rome correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter, was to make Julian Hunte, a pro-abortion "Catholic" politician from the West Indies, a Knight of the Grand Cross Pian Order — one of many papal orders of knighthood. Lifesitenews.com (September 27, 2004) notes that "The honor was bestowed as Hunte completed his term as president of the United Nations General Assembly" — another of Sodano’s favorite causes.

        Lifesite further reveals that Hunte is not only a pro-abortion politician, but also the one who cast the deciding vote in favor of legalizing abortion in the West Indies, after which he commented: "I think every woman must have a choice. I am a pro-choice man." What better candidate for a papal knighthood?

        Of course, Sodano’s choice for the award — so typical of his worldly, political and diplomatic orientation — makes a mockery of the Vatican’s rather lame attempt to prevent bishops from honoring pro-abort politicians. As Lifesite notes: "The honor … is especially controversial in light of Vatican approved US Conference of Bishops regulations which prohibit honors being given to pro-abortion politicians." Lifesite quotes a priest from St. Lucia in the West Indies, Fr. Linus Clovis, who rightly observes: "It makes a mockery of what we stand for and it compromises us because now the public perception on abortion will be: ‘What are you complaining about? The Vatican does not see anything wrong with it.’" Clovis is appealing to the Pope to rescind the award. Good luck. Any such request will, in all likelihood, end up right back on the desk of none other than "Pope" Sodano I.

        The Pope is no longer in command of his Church, if indeed he ever really was. The Church is now ruled by worldly (and wordy) eminences who were not selected to govern Her by any conclave but who, led by Sodano, now rule the entire Church as the Pope slowly dies of the disease that has already rendered him a virtual paralytic. The results produced by these incompetents speak for themselves, as the Vatican contradicts itself and thus undermines the discipline and good order of the Church at every turn. And now it’s a papal knighthood for the "pro-choice man" from the West Indies. God help us.