(posted by Frenchie)
It has been a week now since the official announcement of the departure of Filoni as head of the Congregation for the Evangelization of people.
On many Catholic publication around the world, much has been made about Pope Francis choice for his replacement: Cdl Tagle of the Philippines.
Most of the Press in Italy, and around the world, has drawn parallels between the positions of Tagle and those of Pope Francis. Many have speculated that Francis has been laying the way for a possible successor . For us on Guam this is quite remote from our daily realities.
We know that he is knowledgeable about Guam, and that he is personally close to some of the priests on the island.
We can remember how he came to celebrate the anniversary of Msgr James, at the Cathedral, before the latter fell victim to Apuron's accusationsof mismanagement and other issues.
This can be helpful, if some individuals resist the temptation of playing fast and loose with their private connection with the Cardinal.
Unfortunately we have learned the hard way, how some of our Priests have put their own interest ahead of the interest of the local and universal Church.
Therefore we should be very watchful, and pray intently, that these temptations do not come in the way of the efforts of Archbishop Byrnes to heal and correct the wrongs that were committed by priests that abused their position of authority.
It is our duty as parishioner to stay alert and demanding of our priests.
As far as the NCW is concerned, this is not good news. They loose one of their most devoted patron, and they have inherited instead a sometimes very critical observer.
Some of us at Junglewatch had watch with close concern the winning bidder of the Yona property.
All indications were leading to a possible reactivation of RMS in Yona, along the lines of the Tokyo and Macau latest development by Cardinal Filoni.
It is very interesting that only 4 days after the Red Pope was out of the picture, the "buyer" suddenly relented on their offer.
Tim should develop this interesting story in more details at a later date.
It looks like we came very closed to biting the bullet on that subject.
This new development is bringing us both opportunities and challenges.
Keep posted, and be watchful.