There can be few people with so much hope riding on them as Pope Francis. Just about everybody – from Time magazine to the Archbishop of Canterbury – made him their person of the year. From his simple yet powerful gestures of love and humility to his appointment of a group of eight cardinal advisers, he has offered the world hope of a Church transformed. But in 2014, people will be looking for steak as well as sizzle. In other words, evidence that reforms promised will happen. But there has to be something else that happens first: a change of culture in the Church. And that means a change to secrecy, the end of an overarching fear of scandal, and much more honesty about sexuality. Take, first of all, the attitude of the Church to marriage and divorce. The survey conducte
02 January 2014, The Tablet
‘“I broke the sixth commandment” was a conversation-stopper in the confessional’
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