At the time Richard Williamson had his excommunication removed, the Vatican did not know he was a Holocaust denier. His ordination was never approved by the Vatican in the first place, rather he was ordained in the heretical organization SSPX, which was why he was excommunicated. The reason Benedict removed these excommunications was to restore peace with the ultra-traditionalists who reject the Second Vatican Council, in much the same way Catholics have been working to restore peace with other Christians who do not accept the Catholic orthodoxy. Such ecumenism is usually viewed as progress, but anti-Catholic critics have continually tried to present this as if Benedict condones Holocaust denial, which is disingenuous, as he has condemned those views and suspended Williamson's episcopal authority until he recants.<p>The decision not to meet with the singing priest was not entirely "bad business" because by condoning clergy who perform pop-star renditions of the Mass you isolate the many more conventional Catholics who prefer some solemnity in their liturgy, and find such shows disrespectful to a sacred institution. There have been many such abuses since the Novus Ordo Mass began and Benedict had been trying to tighten up on them.<p>Although the author seems to be suggesting that the Vatican start a bank for the sake of humor, there actually is a Vatican Bank, the Institute for Works of Religion. (Edit: I misread)
Religion in general and Christianity in particular, thrives and flourishes on the soil of human fears, whether [originally] of unexplainable natural phenomena, of ignorance or of gullibility. Given these premises, like secular empires of old, the Roman Catholic Church, already in the "winter" of its existence, is fated to die.<p>A small percentage of educated Catholics (through birth) care about the medieval doctrines of old men in the Vatican, and very few live by them.<p>The media frenzy about the forthcoming elections of a new CEO give the wrong impression that all this is a truly important occasion.
The Roman church has been around for two thousand years.<p>The lifespan of your average publicly traded company is what .. a decade?<p>Advising the Vatican to change everything based on the listed problems is like telling Bezos he needs to overhaul Amazon based on shenanigans that happened yesterday.<p>This might be the right thing to do. Or it might not be. Mr. Bezos would be advised to study the matter for a few days before taking action.
"auguring well for the future" Are you kidding me? Religion at large, especially the churches are dying… Also with "sex scandals" they mean [child] RAPE scandals, right?
There is a surprising amount of euphemistic handwringing in the comments here. I can't do better than Sam Harris:<p>"It is no exaggeration to say that for decades (if not centuries) the Vatican has met the formal definition of a criminal organization, devoted not to gambling, prostitution, drugs, or any other venial sin, but to the sexual enslavement of children."<p>The essay from which this is extracted is worth reading:
<a href="http://www.samharris.org/site/full_text/brin" rel="nofollow">http://www.samharris.org/site/full_text/brin</a>