Is Pope Francis purging conservative prelates?

By Phil Lawler ( bio - articles - email ) | Apr 29, 2015

Many traditionalist Catholics have complained that the bishops who have been forced to resign during this pontificate (Finn, Livieres Plano, Tebartz-van Elst) and the cardinals who have been removed from influential Vatican posts (Burke, Piacenza) all are identified as conservative. In a characteristically balanced commentary on that phenomenon, John Allen of Crux observes that there are two possible explanations. Either the Pope is conducting an ideological purge, or he is trying to reform the episcopate and the Vatican, and it’s coincidental that conservative prelates have been the first ones removed. Allen continues:

If that’s the case, Francis might need to find an occasion to explain in his own voice why he’s going after the people and groups that find themselves in his sights. Otherwise, the risk is that a good chunk of the Church may conclude that if the pope sees them as the enemy, there’s no good reason they shouldn’t see him the same way.

John Allen is not the first observer to point out that the Pope runs the risk of alienating tradition-minded Catholics. Ross Douthat of the New York Times, for instance, has made a similar point on more than one occasion. But Allen’s comment is significant precisely because he is not one of the Pope’s conservative critics.

This isn’t just a question of paranoia on the Catholic Right—although, frankly, there’s more than enough of that to go around. It’s a real problem that the Pope should address.