WASHINGTON — With just two weeks until the pope’s historic visit to the D.C. region, there appears to be growing unrest among conservatives in the Vatican.
Pope Francis is seen by many as a revolutionary who’s more open-minded than some of his predecessors. He’s shown empathy for atheists and compassion for homosexuals — two previously taboo topics in the Catholic church.
On Tuesday, the pope announced radical changes to make it easier for divorced Catholics to remarry in their church.
For centuries, the Catholic church made getting marriages annulled long, complicated and costly. It considers marriage forever and does not recognize divorce.
Now, annulments will be free of charge and faster, with decisions needing the approval of just one instead of two tribunals. If both spouses want a marriage annulled, bishops can now grant it directly.
Ideas like that haven’t been incredibly popular, Washington Post reporter Mary Jordan told WTOP Tuesday. At times, some critics have said that the pope might be making a “mistake,” Jordan said. Some have accused Francis of trying to change with the times, even though the Vatican is supposedly a definitive voice of morality.
“It’s energizing an enormous amount of people, but other people don’t like change,” Jordan said.
The pope has denounced an ornate lifestyle and stays in a modest apartment. Pope Francis has ordered radical overhauls of the Vatican’s finances, ousted top leadership and officials at its financial watchdog agency.
As a result, some within the Vatican have leaked sensitive information to Italian news media. In June, the papal encyclical on the environment was sold to the media.
“They’re supposed to be priestly, too,” said Jordan, “but some of this backbiting is anything but.”
