On Spirituality…Beacon of Light

My dear friends. Is Pope Francis the second coming of Jesus Christ? He acts just like him. He speaks like him. I don’t really think that this is Jesus, but he is very close. I believe Pope Francis is here to save the Catholic Church and maybe the world.
The church has suffered some bad press in her history, where there was wrongdoing, greed, and general abuse of power, but it is difficult to recall a time where the church felt the shame of the whole world on its shoulders, as it does today.
I am a member of the clergy in the Catholic Church and I am a victim of the sex scandal. Not me personally but my best friend in school. He was repeatedly abused by a priest and I was not aware of it. I would even be there on outings with them, completely in the dark of what was going on. It was only years later after his tragic death that his sister wrote of how five of the six children in the family were raped and abused by this one predator. They were a family whose father had left them and were being raised by a single mom. They were vulnerable.
There are many stories like this one and there are stories like this happening now. Child abuse is a terrible thing and should not be ignored by any of us. As members of the human race we are obligated to speak out, to protect the innocent, the helpless.
Pope Francis can make a difference. He just may be brave enough to clean house. The priests, bishops, and cardinals responsible for the abuse of children should not be able to claim statutes of limitations. There should be no time limit for a predator to be charged. The bishops and cardinals involved in paying victims off for their silence should be charged, convicted, and sentenced to jail. All clergy and non-clergy members of the church that are guilty of these horrific crimes need to be brought to justice before we can know peace in the church. Pope Francis can do this and he is doing it in many ways. His actions speak volumes about the way he feels the church should be. How we should lead by example and be loving and kind to all regardless of their race, religion, or even cultural views.
I love the Catholic Church. I believe it is the church that Jesus built upon the rock and the storms of hell will not knock it down. We will survive these trying times, and if we are fearless and persistent in our efforts to be honest, we can come out the other side better.
Pope Francis we place our hopes in you, we pray for you in every church every day during mass. May God keep you as the beacon of light that you are and may all the world come to know Jesus through you.
Peace.